Trump picks Massad Boulos, his daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law, as senior Middle East adviser

For the second time in as many days, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he is selecting another family member to lead his administration, naming his daughter Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law as senior Middle East adviser a day after his son-in-law was elected Jared Kushner’s father serve as ambassador to France.

Billionaire businessman Massad Boulos, father of Trump’s son-in-law Michael Boulos, will serve as senior White House adviser for Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, Trump announced on his Truth social media platform. Lebanon-born Massad Boulos runs Nigeria-based Boulos Enterprises, which manufactures and sells mechanical equipment and motorcycles.

“Massad is an accomplished lawyer and a highly respected executive in the business world with extensive experience on the international stage,” Trump wrote. “He has long been a champion of Republican and conservative values, an asset to my campaign, and has been instrumental in building tremendous new coalitions with the Arab American community.”

Trump added: “Massad is a dealmaker and a steadfast supporter of PEACE in the Middle East. He will be a strong advocate for the United States and its interests, and I am pleased to have him on our team.”

During the final stretch of Trump’s victorious presidential campaign, Boulos appeared with him at campaign stops in Dearborn, Michigan, an Arab-American stronghold, and was praised by Trump for helping him turn Michigan from a blue to a red state.

“Obviously the current war in the Middle East is the No. 1 issue of highest priority within the Arab-American community,” Boulos told The Associated Press in June. “And the question is who can bring peace and who can bring war.” ? And they know the answer to that.

In September, Boulos met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the New York Times reported. Palestinian officials told the Times the meeting was part of an outreach to Trump, but Boulos told the newspaper that it was “purely personal” and that he had not informed Trump about it before or after.

Boulos also has close contacts in Lebanon’s political world and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Lebanese parliament in 2018.

As a young man, Boulos moved to Texas, where he received his doctorate in law from the University of Houston. After studying law, he joined the family business and rose to become CEO.

Michael Boulos and Tiffany Trump, the daughter of Trump and his second wife Marla Maples, married in November 2022 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. While campaigning in Detroit in October, Donald Trump announced that the couple was expecting their first child.

The announcement that Boulos was named senior White House adviser came a day after Trump selected billionaire real estate developer Charles Kushner as ambassador to France. Kushner is the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who served as a senior White House adviser during Trump’s first term as president.

Jared Kushner is married to Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka.

Charles Kushner pleaded guilty in March 2005 to aiding in the filing of false tax returns, retaliating against a cooperating witness and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

Trump granted Kushner a pardon in December 2020.