Lebanese American tycoon who helped Trump win Arab vote could soon be in Middle East for ceasefire talks
Donald Trump campaigned with Massad Boulos in Dearborn, Michigan.
When Donald Trump walked his youngest daughter Tiffany through an enormous bower of hydrangea flowers at her wedding at Mar-a-Lago, few people might have recognised it as a key moment in United States and Middle Eastern politics.
But it was Tiffany Trump's 2022 marriage to the son of Lebanese American tycoon Massad Boulos, Michael, that joined two powerful political families, would help Donald Trump in his second run for the White House and shape his future Middle East policy.
Tiffany Trump married Massad Boulos' son in 2022.
Massad Boulos became a high-profile campaigner for Donald Trump in Michigan, helping the president-elect flip the key state from the Democrats, wooing Arab American voters with a promise to end the war in Lebanon.
He famously took Trump to a prominent Lebanese restaurant in Dearborn, a city known for its majority Arab American population, where Trump promised "peace in the Middle East."
"Obviously the number one point that is of high priority within the Arab American community is the current war in the Middle East," Dr Boulos told the Associated Press in June.
"And the question is, who can bring peace and who is bringing war? And they know the answer to that."
Recognising his influence, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas also met Dr Boulos in New York in September.
Boulos heading to Lebanon
Massad Boulos is a Lebanese Christian whose family come from the country's north.
He moved to Texas to study law before moving to Nigeria.
Michael Boulos (left) was on stage with the Trumps when Donald Trump spoke at the Palm Beach Convention Center in the early hours after the election.
Now Dr Boulos, who heads the billion-dollar SCOA Nigeria conglomerate in West Africa, is expected to have a role in ongoing negotiations to end fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
He told Lebanese media he would be travelling to the region "as soon as possible", although Dr Boulos denied he told a Lebanese media outlet that he would be the lead US negotiator to end the war.
"The transition has begun, it hasn't even been 48 hours, so these details about specific [Trump administration] appointments are not yet clear … it's a bit too soon for that," he told the Lebanese broadcaster LBCI.
"But hopefully, in the coming days and weeks, everything will become clearer, and we can make announcements."
Lebanese Americans told the ABC they supported Trump because they considered he would be more likely to end the war in Lebanon.
They also wanted to punish the Biden-Harris administration for its support of Israel during the bombardment and invasion of Gaza and Lebanon after the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Some also felt that the conservative Republicans better represented Arab family values, particularly with the party's emphasis on limiting LGBT rights and banning pro-LGBT measures in schools.
Trump has also publicly promised to resurrect a travel and refugee resettlement ban on Muslim-majority countries, which had previously angered Arab Americans.
But one Lebanese American from Michigan told the ABC that Trump said the ban was "history" when he visited Dearborn.
'A protest vote against the Biden administration'
Michael Wahid Hanna, director of the US program at the International Crisis Group, said Arab American voters hoping for a dramatically different foreign policy would likely be disappointed.
"Looking at Trump's time in office previously, the platform of the party, the personnel that he's appointing to his new administration, it's hard to see this going in a direction that will be particularly pleasing for these constituencies," he said.
"I imagine we will look back at this as something like a stunt."
Supporters cheer as Trump's first speech following the election is played at an Arab-Americans for Trump watch party.
Mr Hanna said Trump appeared to want the "open-ended phase of the war to wrap up".
"But what's left behind isn't going to be something that will meet the expectations of any of these groups," he told the ABC.
"In the end, I think that vote will look more like a protest vote against the Biden administration as opposed to some kind of broader realignment.
"It's very hard to imagine the Trump administration adopting positions that would go some way to meet these expectations."
The Biden White House has been using Israeli-born energy policy official Amos Hochstein to lead the talks on ending Israel's bombardment and ground invasion of Lebanon, as it pursues the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a bid to stop rocket, drone and missile attacks on northern Israel.
But recently, US officials have stopped calling for a ceasefire.
They have started emphasising that Lebanese MPs should use Israel's decimation of the Hezbollah leadership as a chance to elect a new president and end the political deadlock that has contributed to Lebanon's ongoing dysfunction and financial crisis.
Lebanese are now waiting to see what role Massad Boulos will have and what impact the Trump administration can have.
By：ABC(责任编辑：admin)
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