Trump taps Lebanon-born Massad Boulos as Arab and Middle East adviser
Al Jazeera
Boulos is the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany and led campaign outreach to Arab and Muslim Americans.
United States President-elect Donald Trump has selected Lebanon-born billionaire Massad Boulos as his senior White House adviser for Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, citing the businessman’s outreach to Arab Americans during the election campaign.
The announcement of the appointment on Sunday comes as the Trump administration continues to take shape, particularly in terms of the officials who will oversee US policy in the Middle East, although the purview of Boulos’s role was not immediately clear.
Before the selection of Boulos, who is the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, the president-elect tapped pro-Israel hawk Marco Rubio as his nominee for secretary of state; Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as his ambassador to Israel; and friend Steven Witkoff, a businessman with scant policy experience, as special envoy to the Middle East.
In a statement on Trump’s Truth Social platform, the president-elect hailed Boulos as “an accomplished lawyer and a highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the International scene”.
“Massad is a dealmaker, and an unwavering 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!” Trump wrote.
