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President-elect Donald Trump has tapped two in-laws to take up foreign policy jobs as he fills out his incoming administration with loyalists.
Over the weekend, Trump appointed Massad Boulos as a senior adviser on the Middle East and nominated Charles Kushner to be the ambassador to France. Boulos is the father-in-law of daughter Tiffany, while Kushner is the father-in-law of eldest daughter Ivanka.
Kushner, a 70-year-old real estate executive, was a big donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign.
He also received a presidential pardon at the end of Trump’s first term after he was convicted on multiple counts of tax evasion, campaign finance violations and witness tampering, for which he spent time in jail. He was released in 2006.
Kushner’s nomination comes at a delicate moment in the US-France relationship. Trump has castigated European allies for not spending enough on their own defence, picking up a theme from his first term.
Trump’s appointment of Boulos, who will be senior adviser to the president on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, will thrust the Lebanese auto tycoon into the fragile effort to uphold a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Trump’s Middle East team includes real estate developer Steve Witkoff, who Trump named special envoy to the region, and his nominee for US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
None of those named have traditional diplomatic backgrounds and reflect Trump’s penchant for elevating close friends and family to key positions.
“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 said in a post on Truth Social.
Boulos, whose son Michael is married to Tiffany, spent most of the past year drumming up support for Trump among Arab Americans in the battleground state of Michigan.
Boulos recently travelled to Washington to meet senior Lebanese officials and other diplomats and US representatives.
It was widely assumed he would be the next person to oversee relations between Israel and Lebanon, taking up the file from President Joe Biden’s senior adviser Amos Hochstein.
Hochstein has briefed several people close to Trump on the ceasefire effort but not Boulos, a person familiar with the matter said. Hochstein has been in touch with Witkoff, Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and Jared Kushner, the person said.
Jared Kushner held several prominent posts in Trump’s first administration, particularly related to the Middle East, with Ivanka also serving as a senior adviser. Neither are expected to take official roles this time around.
Jared Kushner and Trump’s son Donald Jr are also key transition advisers.
Born into a Christian family in Kfar Akka, Lebanon, Boulos moved to Texas as a teenager to attend the University of Houston. After graduation, Boulos joined his family’s automotive business in Nigeria, rising to lead Scoa Motors and Boulos Enterprises, which dominate the Nigerian market for motorcycles and vehicles.
He is known to have close ties across Lebanon’s Christian political class, including with Suleiman Frangieh, a leading Christian politician and Hizbollah’s preferred candidate to fill the vacant presidency.
The US last week announced that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a ceasefire, ending more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah.
The US-brokered ceasefire deal outlines a gradual withdrawal of Israeli and Hizbollah forces from southern Lebanon over the course of 60 days. The Lebanese army and Unifil troops are set to deploy widely in the region, which will be enforced by a US-led monitoring mechanism.
Additional reporting by Adrienne Klasa
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