LANSING, Michigan (AP) — One of Donald Trump’s envoys to Arab Americans is a Lebanese-born businessman who moved to Texas as a teenager, speaks Arabic, English and French and recently joined the Trump family when his son married the former president’s younger daughter.
Massad Boulos has taken on the challenge of convincing a politically influential community livid at President Joe Biden that Trump is a better option. But many Arab Americans also note that Trump has taken a more pro-Israel stance than Biden and has made a number of comments and policy announcements that critics label as Islamophobic.
Trump has long used family members and their relatives in key roles in his campaigns and in the White House. Boulos, whose son Michael married Tiffany Trump two years ago, is the latest relative to rise in Trump’s political circle, using longstanding connections to gain support for the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee’s campaign.
Some Trump allies believe they can capitalize on discord within Biden’s Democratic base over his support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza, where health officials say more than 37,000 people have died in the Hamas-controlled territory since Oct. 7, but they do not provide figures for civilians and fighters. Biden faced a significant protest vote during the Michigan primary in February in areas with high proportions of Arab Americans, a key Democratic bloc.
“The most important issue that is of the highest priority within the Arab-American community is, of course, the current war in the Middle East,” Boulos said in an interview. “And the question is, who can bring peace and who will bring war? And they know the answer to that.”
Several of the people who met with Boulos also point to Trump’s statements about Arabs and Muslims. During his presidency, Trump banned immigration from several Muslim-majority countries and questioned the loyalty of Muslim members of Congress. Now, as he campaigns for a second term after his 2020 defeat, Trump has at times criticized Biden for not sufficiently supporting Israel and threatened to turn away pro-Palestinian protesters he describes as Hamas supporters.
“I told Massad, ‘It’s not about you being Lebanese and me being Lebanese,'” said Osama Siblani, editor of Arab American News in Dearborn. “You can’t just buy votes. You have to give something substantial to the community. And Trump hasn’t done that so far.”
A descendant moves into US politics
Of medium build, with greying black hair, square glasses and a balmy, cordial smile, Boulos is often praised for his serene demeanor and modesty – qualities not necessarily associated with someone who heads a billion-dollar company.
Boulos was born in Lebanon and moved to Texas shortly before attending the University of Houston, where he earned a law degree. Boulos said he was actively involved in Republican politics as a student.
After graduating, he eventually joined the three-generation family business and became Managing Director and CEO of SCOA Nigeria, a conglomerate specializing in the assembly and distribution of motor vehicles and equipment.
Boulos has a political background in his home country, where he ran unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat in Lebanon in 2009. He describes himself as a “friend” of Sleiman Frangieh, a Christian politician allied with the Shiite party and the militant Hezbollah. Frangieh is currently the Hezbollah-backed candidate for the vacant presidential post in Lebanon.
Boulos supported Trump from afar since his first campaign and became more directly involved after meeting Trump at a White House Christmas party in 2019. At the time, Michael Boulos was dating Tiffany Trump.
According to his campaign finance records, Massad Boulos has not made any recent donations, but on a trip to Michigan this month, he attended what he described as a “private fundraiser” with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Michigan) and about 50 Arab Americans.
Boulos supported the 2020 campaign, but his role has expanded significantly since his son’s wedding to Tiffany Trump in 2022, particularly because Arab-Americans’ dissatisfaction with Biden represents a greater political opportunity for him, according to Trump’s allies.
“One less vote for Biden is one less vote for Trump,” said Bishara Bahbah, chair of the group Arab Americans for Trump.
Boulos maintains a “very close working relationship” with the group, Bahbah said.
The group, which says it is independent of the Trump campaign, has offices in Michigan and Arizona, states that have been identified as priorities by “people close to Trump,” Bahbah said.
A meeting in Troy, Michigan, in May was attended by Massad and Michael Boulos, as well as Richard Grenell, Trump’s ambassador to Germany and a key foreign policy adviser to the former president, and about 40 Arab-American activists from across the country.
Although Arab Americans for Trump was involved in the event, Boulos said it was primarily initiated by Grenell. The event received mixed feedback, with some participants saying it lacked substance and failed to address their concerns about Trump.
“Grenell did not say what they were going to do, but he kept reminding us that there was no war at all under Trump’s presidency and that he launched the largest peace effort in the Middle East. But most Arabs and Muslims do not consider the Abraham Accords a peace agreement,” said Khaled Saffuri, an Arab-American political activist who was in attendance.
According to several people who attended the meeting, Grenell tried to call Trump to contact the participants by phone, but the former president did not respond.
Grenell and the Trump campaign team declined to comment.
Within public relations
Just over a week later, Boulos returned for another round of talks. This time he had several meetings with nearly 50 members of the Arab American community, in addition to one-on-one meetings with people identified by Mike Hacham, the Michigan coordinator of Arab Americans for Trump, as “particularly at-risk” leaders.
Boulos said his efforts so far have been “more of a personal effort to reconnect with friends.” He usually begins meetings by speaking for nearly 20 minutes, outlining the record of the Biden and Trump presidencies. He then opens the discussion for questions.
Siblani had a nearly two-hour meeting with Boulos, who was accompanied by Bahbah, the chairman of Arab Americans for Trump.
According to Siblani, Boulos argued that Arab Americans were better off under Trump and that there had been fewer conflicts and wars in the world during his presidency. He suggested that Trump could help resolve the Gaza conflict.
But when Siblani countered, he said Boulos lacked “facts to prove his claim that Trump is better.”
“Massad cannot convince people to come to Trump’s side because he has nothing substantial to offer the community except that his son is married to Trump’s daughter and he has access,” Siblani said. “That’s fine, but what we need is politics and what Trump will do.”
In interviews, Boulos said Trump “respects and admires” the Arab-American community. He denied the existence of a “Muslim ban,” as many Trump opponents call his travel ban on immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries. Boulos argued that it was actually “extreme vetting in certain parts of the world.”
The key messages from these meetings, Boulos said, are being conveyed to Trump. As evidence, Boulos cited a recent social media post by Trump in which he promised “peace in the Middle East” if he were re-elected. Boulos claimed the timing of the post was “not a coincidence” but rather a response to “listening to the community’s concerns.”
Several community leaders who met with Boulos said Trump’s statement, which he released on his social media platform Truth Social on June 4, did not go far enough.
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes said the campaign was “grateful that President Trump’s supporters are making an effort to communicate with this community.”
“We believe that Biden’s failed Middle East policy has brought death, chaos and war to the region. This failure led tens of thousands of Democrats to vote ‘undecided’ in the Michigan presidential primary. The Trump campaign has and will continue to educate these voters to remind them that President Trump’s policies in the Middle East have brought a historic level of peace and stability to the region,” Hughes said.
Just the beginning
Some in the community still feel there are options other than just Trump and Biden. Green Party candidate Jill Stein visited Dearborn this year to meet with leaders and recently spoke with the city’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, about the possibility of him being her running mate.
Hammoud is 34 years senior and therefore ineligible to be vice president. The US Constitution requires that both the president and vice president must be at least 35 years senior.
Representatives of the Biden administration have also visited Dearborn to meet with local leaders and are in regular contact with them, including Siblani.
Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, criticized the efforts of Trump’s allies, saying in a statement that Trump was “the greatest threat to the Muslim and Arab community.”
“He and his allies believe we don’t belong in this country, and Trump speaks openly about allowing Israel to recklessly bomb Gaza,” said Moussa, who is Arab American. “Trump and his campaign team are racists and Islamophobes. Period. President Biden, on the other hand, is working tirelessly toward a just and lasting peace.”
Boulos said he will continue to divide his time between running his company and meeting with the Arab-American community until the November election.
He stressed that he was motivated solely by the fact that he was a “concerned citizen and Republican.” He has not considered joining Trump’s administration if the Republican wins the election.
“Honestly, I’m not worried about it at the moment. I haven’t thought about it at all, but I’m definitely not aiming for anything,” he said.
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Associated Press reporters Jill Colvin in Washington, Abby Sewell in Beirut, Lebanon, and Chinedu Asadu in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
