Trump taps Massad Boulos, another in-law, as adviser on Middle East
The president-elect often named family members to posts during his campaign and in his first term.
President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that he would nominate Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman and the father-in-law of his daughter Tiffany, as a senior adviser covering Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
Trump announced his decision to appoint Boulos on Truth Social. In a statement that did not mention the family connection, Trump praised Boulos’s business acumen and the role he had played in his presidential campaign. Boulos served as a self-described envoy courting Arab American and Muslim voters on Trump’s behalf.
“Massad is an accomplished lawyer and a highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the International scene,” Trump said in his post. “He has been a longtime proponent of Republican and Conservative values, an asset to my Campaign, and was instrumental in building tremendous new coalitions with the Arab American Community.”
The advisory White House post doesn’t require Senate confirmation.
Boulos met Trump in 2019 after his son Michael began dating Tiffany Trump. In the run-up to this year’s election, he made repeated trips to Michigan and other key swing states as he sought to build support for Trump among Arab Americans and Muslims frustrated with the Biden administration’s backing of Israel in the ongoing Middle East conflict.
That outreach sought to recast Trump’s own pro-Israel policies during his first term in the White House and as a 2024 candidate. In stops across the country, Boulos encouraged voters to look past Trump’s incendiary rhetoric and policies that appeared to vilify Muslims and Arabs, and cast him as someone who could restore peace in the region.
“Those massacres would not have happened if there was a strong president at the White House,” Boulos said of the bloodshed in Gaza during a stop in Arizona this fall. “The entire war wouldn’t have happened.”
Boulos has said little publicly about his views on the ongoing conflict or how Trump might forge a path forward once he assumes office. Born in Lebanon, he reportedly has long-standing ties to political figures in that country.
In June, Boulos told the Associated Press that he is a “friend” of Sleiman Frangieh, a Christian politician allied with the Shiite party and the militant group Hezbollah. The group has endorsed Frangieh’s bid to become the next Lebanese president.
Boulos describes himself as a Lebanese Christian and told Newsweek in October that he is “acquainted” with many Lebanese Christian leaders, but he denied reports that he previously sought office there and said he is not affiliated “with any party in Lebanon.”
Trump has often given family members influential roles in his campaign and his administration. During his first term in office, Trump’s daughter Ivanka served as a senior White House adviser. Her husband, Jared, was an adviser and Middle East liaison — a role he is expected to informally continue during his father-in-law’s second term.
Trump’s son Don Jr. was a key adviser to his reelection campaign, encouraging his father to choose JD Vance as his running mate. Lara Trump, who is married to his son Eric and is a longtime political adviser, has served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee since March.
Boulos is originally from Lebanon, and he moved to Texas as a teenager. He now lives in both South Florida and Nigeria, where he oversees his family’s billion-dollar conglomerate, SCOA Nigeria. His son Michael has been married to Tiffany Trump since 2022.
