LANSING, Mich. (AP) — One of Donald Trump’s emissaries 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 their son married the former president. younger daughter.
Massad Boulos took up the challenge of trying to convince a politically influential community angry to President Joe Biden that Trump is a better option. But many Arab Americans also note that Trump has positioned himself as more pro-Israel than Biden and made a series of comments and policy announcements that critics characterize as Islamophobic.
Trump took a long time family members And their loved ones 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 into Trump’s political orbit as he uses longtime connections in an effort to shore up support for the 2024 campaign. presumptive Republican nominee.
Some Trump allies believe they can take advantage of rifts within Biden’s Democratic base over his support for the party. Israeli offensive in Gazawhere more than 37,000 people have died since October 7, according to health officials in the territory controlled by Hamas, who do not give the number of civilians and fighters. Biden faced a important protest vote in Michigan’s February primary, in areas with high numbers of Arab-Americans, who make up a significant Democratic bloc.
“Obviously the No. 1 item that is of high priority within the Arab-American community is the current war in the Middle East,” Boulos said in an interview. “And the question is: who can bring peace and who brings war? And they know the answer to that question.
Several of the people who met with Boulos also highlighted Trump’s statements about Arabs and Muslims. While president, Trump immigration prohibited of several Muslim-majority countries and questioned the the loyalty of Muslim legislators serving in Congress. Now, as he campaigns for a second term after losing in 2020, Trump has sometimes criticized Biden for his lack of support for Israel and has threatened with expulsion He calls pro-Palestinian demonstrators supporters of Hamas.
“I told Massad, ‘It’s not about you being Lebanese and me being Lebanese,'” said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News newspaper in Dearborn. “You can’t just buy votes. You have to give something substantial to the community. And Trump hasn’t done it yet.”
A descendant enters American politics
Boulos, of medium height with graying black hair, square glasses and a warm, friendly smile, is often praised for his calm and humility – qualities not always associated with someone who oversees a conglomerate of a billion dollars.
Born in Lebanon, Boulos moved to Texas shortly before attending the University of Houston and earning a doctorate in jurisprudence. Boulos said he actively participated in Republican politics as a student.
After graduating, he eventually joined the three-generation family business and became Managing Director and CEO of the SCOA Nigeria conglomerate, specializing in the assembly and distribution of automotive vehicles and equipment.
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Boulos has a political background in his home country, having run unsuccessfully in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections in 2009. He describes himself as a “friend” of Sleiman Frangieha Christian politician allied with the Shiite party and militant group Hezbollah. Frangieh is currently the Hezbollah-backed candidate for Lebanon’s presidential vacancy.
A distant Trump supporter since his first campaign, Boulos became more directly involved after meeting Trump at a White House Christmas party in 2019. At the time, Michael Boulos was dating Tiffany Trump.
Massad Boulos has not made any recent donations, according to campaign financial records. But during a trip to Michigan this month, he attended what he described as a “private fundraising event” with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R -La., U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and about 50 Arab Americans.
Boulos contributed to the 2020 campaign, but his role has expanded significantly since his son married Tiffany Trump in 2022, especially as Arab Americans’ discontent with Biden has presented what allies Trump sees as a bigger political opportunity.
“One less vote for Biden equals one vote for Trump,” said Bishara Bahbah, president of the group Arab Americans for Trump.
Boulos has a “very close working relationship” with the group, Bahbah said.
The group, which says it is independent of the Trump campaign, has set up operations in Michigan and Arizona, states identified as priority areas by “people close to Trump,” Bahbah said.
A month of May meeting held in Troy, Michigan, included Massad and Michael Boulos as well as Richard Grenell, who was Trump’s ambassador to Germany and one of the former president’s top foreign policy advisers. About 40 Arab-American activists from across the country participated.
While Arab Americans for Trump was involved in the event, Boulos said it was primarily instigated by Grenell. The rally received mixed feedback, with some attendees saying it lacked substance and did not address their concerns about Trump.
“Grenell didn’t say what they would do, but he kept reminding us that when Trump was president, there was no war at all and he launched the largest peace effort in the Middle East. But most Arabs and Muslims do not consider Abraham Accords a peace agreement,” said Khaled Saffuri, an Arab-American political activist there.
Grenell attempted to call Trump to address attendees by phone, according to several people at the meeting. The former president did not respond.
Grenell and the Trump campaign declined to comment.
Inside Awareness
A little over a week later, Boulos returned for another round of engagements. This time, he had several meetings with nearly 50 members of the Arab-American community, as well as one-on-one sessions with individuals identified as “highly targeted” leaders by Mike Hacham, the Arab-Americans for Trump coordinator in the Michigan.
Boulos said his efforts so far have been “more of a personal effort to reconnect with his friends.” He said he typically begins meetings by speaking for nearly 20 minutes, laying out the records of the Biden and Trump presidencies. He then opens the floor to possible questions.
Siblani had a nearly two-hour meeting with Boulos, who was accompanied by Bahbah, the president of Trump’s Arab Americans.
According to Siblani, Boulos argued that things were better for Arab Americans under Trump and that the world had seen fewer conflicts and fewer wars during his presidency, suggesting that Trump could help resolve the Gaza conflict.
But when Siblani hit back, he said Boulos lacked “facts to prove his claim that Trump is better.”
“Massad is unable to convince people to side with Trump because he hasn’t offered anything substantial to the community except that his son is married to Trump’s daughter and has access,” he said. Siblani said. “That’s good, but what we need is politics and what Trump will do.”
In interviews, Boulos has said that Trump “respects and admires” the Arab American community. He denied there was a “Muslim ban,” which is how many of Trump’s opponents refer to his ban on immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries. Boulos argued that this was in fact “extreme control in certain parts of the world.”
Key messages from those meetings, Boulos said, are communicated to Trump. Boulos pointed to as evidence a recent social media post by Trump that promised to bring “peace to the Middle East” if he were re-elected. Boulos said the timing of the release “was not a coincidence” but rather a response to “listening to community concerns.”
Trump’s statement, posted on his social media platform Truth Social on June 4, did not go far enough for several community leaders who met with Boulos.
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes said the campaign was “grateful that President Trump’s supporters are working to communicate with this community.”
“We share the conviction that the failure of Biden’s Middle East policy has brought death, chaos and war to the region. This failure led tens of thousands of Democrats to vote “no commitment” in the Michigan presidential primary. The Trump campaign has and will continue to communicate with these voters and remind them that President Trump’s Middle East policies have brought historic levels of peace and stability to this region,” Hughes said.
Just the beginning
Some in the community still believe there are other options besides Trump and Biden. Green Party candidate Jill Stein traveled to Dearborn this year to meet with leaders and recently had conversations with the city’s Mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, about the possibility of him becoming her running mate.
Hammoud, 34, is not eligible for the post of vice president. The U.S. Constitution requires that the president and vice president be at least 35 years old.
Biden administration officials also traveled to Dearborn to meet with local leaders and kept in progress contact with them, including Siblani.
Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, criticized the move by Trump’s allies, saying in a statement that Trump “is the greatest threat to the Muslim and Arab community.”
“He and his allies think we have no place in this country and Trump talks openly about allowing Israel to bomb Gaza without any consideration,” said Moussa, who is Arab-American. “Trump and his campaign are racist and Islamophobic. Period. President Biden, for his part, works tirelessly towards a just and lasting peace.
Until the November election, Boulos said he will continue to divide his time between running his business and meeting with the Arab-American community.
He emphasized that he was motivated solely by being a “concerned and Republican citizen.” He has not considered playing a role in the Trump administration if the Republican were to win.
“Honestly, I have no idea about that right now. I haven’t thought about it at all, but I don’t aspire to anything at all,” he said.
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Associated Press journalists Jill Colvin in Washington, Abby Sewell in Beirut, Lebanon, and Chinedu Asadu in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.