Massad Boulos, Dearborn, MI, Friday, November 1, 2024.
AP Photo | Julia DeMarie Nicholson
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-American businessman and father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, as senior adviser for Arab and Middle East affairs.
Burrows arranged for the Trump campaign to engage with Michigan’s Arab-American community, organizing dozens of meetings in areas with large Arab-American populations that have struggled with Democratic President Joe Biden’s support for Israel in Gaza and Lebanese offensive. Trump won Dearborn Heights, a U.S. city with a majority Arab population, on his way to sweeping Michigan and other swing states.
“He has been a long-time supporter of Republican and Conservative values, a great asset to my campaign and has built tremendous new relationships with the Arab-American community,” Trump said in an article published in Truth Social. The alliance played an important role.
Trump and Bloss said a Republican president would bring peace to the Middle East, but neither man has publicly provided specific details of Trump’s plans for the region.
Boulos has previously sought public office in Lebanon and has longstanding ties to the country’s politicians. Trump’s other picks for key national security positions are staunch supporters of Trump ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump’s appointed ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has consistently rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state on Israeli-occupied territory. He claimed that “there really are no Palestinians,” referring to the descendants of people who lived in Palestine before the establishment of Israel.
Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegers, has advocated rebuilding a biblical Jewish temple on the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.
Bloss helped exploit divisions within the Democratic base over support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza. die.
Trump won Michigan by just over 10,000 votes in 2016, while Biden took the state back for Democrats in 2020 by about 154,000 votes. In November, Trump won Michigan with 49.7% of the vote over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, the Vice President.
“Masad is a dealmaker and a staunch supporter of peace in the Middle East,” Trump said on “Truth Society.”
Trump has long placed family members and their relatives in key positions, and he is signaling that he will run his second administration the same way. On Saturday, he announced his intention to nominate real estate developer Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as ambassador to France.
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