On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump announced the appointment of Lebanese-American billionaire businessman Massad Boulos as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern matters. Boulos, Trump’s daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law, was a crucial role during the campaign, engaging with Arab-American and Muslim leaders to increase Trump’s appeal in these communities, which have generally been less supportive of Republicans.

Boulos has used his vast ties in the Arab-American community to shift support to Trump, particularly in battleground areas such as Michigan, where discontent with the Biden administration’s handling of Palestinian and Lebanese affairs has grown. His personal relationship with Trump, through his son Michael Boulos’ marriage to Tiffany, lends a unique dimension to his political support.

Trump frequently pledged on the campaign trail to put an end to the hostilities in Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere, without defining how he would do so. In an October interview with Sky News in the United Kingdom, Boulos emphasized the importance of completing the war “quickly.”

What we mean by finishing it swiftly is that you have some military objectives to meet, such as eliminating Hamas infrastructure and the ability to launch additional operations, among other things,” he explained. “Let’s move to peace, and let’s move to rebuilding Gaza and rebuilding Lebanon,” according to him. “We want Gaza to develop. We want the Palestinian people to be rich, to live in peace and harmony alongside Israelis, and to have complete security on both sides.”

Boulos, a naturalized US citizen and University of Houston law graduate, comes from a prominent Lebanese family and currently serves as CEO of Boulos Enterprises. He is from a Greek Orthodox household. He has long-standing relationships with prominent Arab-American figures, particularly in Michigan, which has a diversified Arab-American population of Yemeni, Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese, and Egyptian heritage. Boulos’ efforts in Michigan were vital to Trump’s victory, swaying some of the state’s 300,000 Arab-American and Muslim voters who had supported Biden in 2020 but were dissatisfied with his stances on Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon.In a pre-election interview, Boulos reported spending months working with Michigan’s Arab-American community.

“I’ve probably spent five or six months with them,” he stated, reflecting on his outreach activities. “The relationship is based on trust.” Ties with influential Christian Lebanese parties Boulos’ links extend beyond the United States to Lebanon, where his family has ties to influential Christian Lebanese organizations such as the Marada Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), both of which have political alliances with Hezbollah, a Shiite terrorist group with close ties to Iran. Despite his personal ties to Lebanon’s complex political scene, Boulos has denied any desire for a Lebanese parliamentary seat, despite running for office in 2009 and again in 2018.Boulos’ influence in the Arab-American community aligns with his overall goal of pushing conservative Arabs and Muslims away from the Democratic party.

He has been a Republican for over three decades and sees his expanded role in Trump’s administration as an opportunity to better connect Arab-American communities.Boulos’ standing inside the Trump family has further increased with his son Michael’s marriage to Tiffany Trump in 2022, which will take place in a spectacular wedding at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago Club. Fostering relationships Prior to the election, Boulos held weekly meetings with Arab-American and Muslim leaders in critical states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, and others with significant Arab populations.

He played an important role in building contacts with Muslim voters, receiving endorsements from imams and the Muslim mayor of Hamtramck, a Detroit suburb with a sizable Arab-American community.Boulos’ outreach plan focused on private engagements with corporate executives and community influencers, convincing them that Trump was dedicated to reducing US participation in Middle Eastern crises. “We’re building trust with these communities,” Boulos remarked.While his frequent excursions to Lebanon have decreased in recent years, the Lebanese community, particularly in Lebanon, is optimistic about his new job. “It’s a good thing. “Hopefully, he will work for Lebanon,” said Hamdi Hawallah, a Lebanese man in his late seventies. “We hold onto a piece of driftwood just to be optimistic,” he told Reuters.