When I first realized that Pres. Donald Trump’s daughter married the son of a Lebanese-American billionaire who was campaigning for Trump, I could see where this was headed.
Trump has a penchant for appointing family members to key policy positions and, with Massad Boulos campaigning for Trump to galvanize the Arab-American vote (successfully, I might add), I could see how he would factor into the new administration.
Not surprisingly, Massad—a Lebanese-American billionaire—is now Trump’s pick for Middle East envoy.
This likely means that the politically divided and financially distraught nation of Lebanon will be placed high on the incoming administration’s priority list.
This really could be Lebanon’s time. And the mood in Lebanon might just be ripe for change.
For instance, there is talk among Lebanese about disarming Hezbollah. Boulos told the French magazine Le Pointe that while the question of how to do that is “not an easy one… according to some estimates, nearly 70% of strategic weapons and missile and drone depots have been destroyed during this war. As for what remains, it is normally the Lebanese state and therefore the Lebanese Army that has the role of disarming the militias and paramilitary groups.”
TRUMP’S APPROACH TO THE MIDDLE EAST
In his last term, Trump brokered the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between four Arab/Muslim nations and Israel in 2020. While it sidestepped the issue of a Palestinian state (and the Palestinians in general), the deal was unprecedented and resulted in an economic surge in the region.
Trump also offered a comprehensive political and economic peace plan to the Palestinians, which included establishing a state and opening up the territory to foreign investment.
“With the potential to facilitate more than $50 billion in new investment over ten years, Peace to Prosperity represents the most ambitious and comprehensive international effort for the Palestinian people to date. It has the ability to fundamentally transform the West Bank and Gaza and to open a new chapter in Palestinian history—one defined, not by adversity and loss, but by freedom and dignity,” Trumps’ plan promised.
Though Palestinians rejected the idea—ostensibly chalking it up to a bribe—the plan is likely still on the table. Perhaps after Oct. 7, moderate Palestinians who see a dim future with Israel still controlling the checkpoints will be more willing to negotiate this time.
Boulos in September met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, a meeting Palestinian officials described as part of an outreach to Trump himself. Boulos also delivered a letter from Abbas expressing to Trump his well wishes after an assassination attempt against him. Also noteworthy, Abbas was among international leaders who called Trump to congratulate him on his victory in November.
These small gestures carry heavy weight in the political world and imply that future negotiations are welcome.
WHO IS MASSAD BOULOS?
Boulos was born in 1971 to a Christian family in Kfaraakka, a village in northern Lebanon. He moved to the United States as a teenager and eventually earned his law degree at the University of Houston. He married Sarah Fadoul, daughter of Lebanese-Nigerian tycoon Zouhair Fadoul of the Fadoul Group which owns several companies including SCOA Nigeria, of which Boulos is CEO.
The couple has four children including Michael, now husband to Tiffany Trump. Michael grew up in Nigeria.
Boulos rose to prominence in American politics while campaigning for Trump this past year. He told journalist Ray Hanania of US Arab Radio in an interview this summer that he was always registered as a Republican.
He said Arabs—both Christian and Muslim—are predominantly conservative by nature, culture and religion.
“Those values alone push us to the Republican party,” he said.
However, some of the Arab-American vote for Trump was a clear vote against the Biden administration for its failure to end the war in Gaza, which many Arabs consider a genocide against Palestinians.
In an interview in July with Lebanon’s LBCI News (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International), Boulos acknowledged that America has long been an ally of Israel, “and no current or future president can oppose Israel.”
“However, there is a significant difference in how presidents handle these issues. President Trump, during his four years in office, was the only president in modern U.S. history who did not start any wars…,” he said.
He said that unlike Biden who failed to do so, Trump will “strive to end the Gaza conflict immediately. He is a man of peace and has shown this during his four years, achieving four peace agreements in the Middle East, a feat not seen since Camp David. These included four significant Arab countries, and a fifth, Saudi Arabia, was close to an agreement just weeks before the end of his term. His administration’s primary focus was on the two-state solution, which is crucial for Arab and Muslim American voters, and President Trump has already taken steps in this direction.”
BACK TO LEBANON
Massad’s new role essentially replaces President Joe Biden’s Middle East envoy, Amos Hochstein, who is Israeli born and served in the IDF. Hochstein brokered a maritime deal between Israel and Lebanon in 2022 under Israel’s previous government, but failed to get a ceasefire between the two for 14 months.
But now, with Boulos in the position, Lebanon will likely get special attention.
The New York Times quoted a social media post of Lebanon’s caretaker economy minister, Amin Salam, who called Boulos’ appointment a “historic opportunity.” Lebanon and the wider Arab world, Amin said, “have never been closer to the White House and the center of decision-making than they are today.”
The paper of record also reported that Boulos is considered “to have close ties to the country’s Christian elite, and has labeled himself as a friend of Suleiman Frangieh, who has previously been named by Hezbollah leaders as the group’s top pick for Lebanon’s president, and is closely allied with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.”
Aron Lund, fellow at Century International, speculates in a Nov. 20 article, that “If those are Boulos’s political leanings, too, it would make him an odd bird in a Trump administration dedicated to advancing Israel’s interests and confronting Iran, Assad’s primary ally. On the other hand, connections of that sort could be highly useful if Trump were to lean the other way and pursue his isolationist instincts, aiming to deescalate ongoing wars, deconflict with Iran, and scale down the U.S. presence in the region.”
https://tcf.org/content/commentary/trumps-would-be-lebanon-whisperer/
He wonders, will Boulos would be Trump’s Lebanon whisperer?
With more and more Lebanese speaking out against Hezbollah after it dragged the country into a devastating war (again) against Israel, citizens might be ready for a change. And all of this is especially interesting now in light of recent developments in Syria where the rebels are waging an emboldened war of revenge on Assad’s regime.
Will Lebanon join the Abraham Accords under Trump? Probably not, at least no time soon.
But will the nation collaborate with the United States if it offers economic investment and incentives similar to the Peace to Prosperity plan for the Palestinians? And would some of this perhaps involve Israel behind the scenes? I would bet on it.