Michael Arria
Mondoweiss / December 5, 2024
On a certain level, the selection of the Lebanese American tycoon Massad Boulos as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs is vintage Trump. However, Boulos isn’t exactly your average Republican pick.
Last Sunday Trump announced that Massad Boulos will serve as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
On a certain level the selection of the Lebanese American tycoon is vintage Trump. The president-elect loves rewarding loyal elites and it never hurts if they are directly connected to his family in some way. Boulos isn’t just a CEO who helped deliver Republican votes. His son his married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany.
However, Boulos isn’t exactly your average Republican pick. He began his business career as an ally of Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, the Christian party that aligned itself with Hezbollah in 2008. He’s also close with Lebanese politician Suleiman Frangiye, who is reportedly friendly with the Syrian government. Boulos was even previously linked with the Communist Party. These facts certainly don’t vibe with the positions of the U.S. government.
If this position doesn’t amount to much of anything then these contradictions probably aren’t especially interesting. However, if this gig ends up landing Boulos a spot in the administration they might be worth exploring.
Here’s Century Foundation fellow Aron Lund on the pick:
… Boulos’s long and checkered past in Lebanese politics—first as a supporter of Aoun’s anti-Syrian exile activism and then of the general’s pro-Syrian turn, followed by a spell alongside the anti-Syrians of the Lebanese Forces, before finally hooking up with Marada, a stalwart pro-Assad group—does not exactly indicate a firm commitment to either side in Lebanese or regional politics.
Will that help him secure a position in the coming Trump II administration, though? It’s hard to tell. On the one hand, Boulos was quick to discredit reports that he’s got a Lebanon envoy job lined up—but on the other hand, he has spent the time after the election meeting Lebanese political figures. Indeed, the mere fact that Middle Eastern leaders see Boulos as a channel to reach Trump could help him claim that role. To be sure, Boulos’s family connection to Trump makes it unlikely that he would simply be discarded the way other campaign figures could be. Meanwhile, the war between Israel and Hezbollah will ensure that Lebanon sits high on Trump’s agenda.
Whether that’ll be enough to position Massad Boulos as Trump’s Lebanon whisperer remains to be seen. Either way, this colourful character offers a useful reminder that Middle East politics under Donald Trump will often be more readily understood in light of the personalities orbiting Mar-a-Lago than through an ideological prism or in terms of U.S. national interest.
These sentiments were echoed by Jadaliyya co-editor Mouin Rabbani in a recent interview at the site.
“I think the Century Foundation’s Aaron Lund recently made a very perceptive point, that given the chaotic nature that is rightfully expected of the next administration, policy may well be made by individuals appointed to various portfolios rather than centrally directed from the White House,” Rabbani told me. “Here it becomes interesting, of course, because the Trump coalition consists of different interest groups. You have the Adelson crowd, you have the Christian Zionists, you have the isolationists. So it’ll be interesting to see if this simply results in total chaos, or if it ultimately results in anything that can even remotely be considered a coherent policy, and then we’ll have to see what that is.”
Mitchell Plitnick believes the pick shows Trump’s willingness to engage with the Palestinian Authority. “Massad Boulos is a businessman and political opportunist. But he was also previously Trump’s go-between with the PA,” he tweeted. “There is still little to be optimistic about here. But this nomination does signal that Trump wants to engage with the Palestinians, for better or worse.”
A recent Democracy Now interview with Beirut-based journalist Kareem Chehayeb provides some insight into how Boulos is selling Trump to the region.
“Lebanon, for many years, has gone through an economic crisis, political turmoil. The country has been without a president for over two years now. And, of course, there’s a lot of concerns that, you know, this war that Hezbollah and Israel had would not have a lasting ceasefire or that there could not be lasting security in Lebanon,” said Chehayeb. “And there was almost a very specific appeal from Massad Boulos to the Lebanese through his ongoing interventions in the Lebanese media. He’s been broadcasted quite frequently, and now it seems it’s going to continue, now that he’s been assigned a specific role. It seems the Lebanese are hoping that there could be some calm in the region by a perception of a president who thinks like a businessman rather than a politician. This is what I hear from different Lebanese people and actual political officials, as well. So, that’s something that we will see.”
Even if the selection of Boulos doesn’t end up having an impact, the existence of his current position is a notable data point on its own. The Arab American vote likely help tip Michigan to the Republicans, as man voters were angered over the Biden administration’s support for the ongoing genocide.
Visa letter
In late September 2023 the Biden administration announced that it was accepting Israel into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which allowed Israelis to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa.
The Israeli government had been lobbying on the issue for decades, but it faced major, obvious obstacles. Countries allowed into the program have historically had a lower a visa rejection rate than Israel’s. Countries were also prohibited from joining if they discriminated against U.S. nationals and Israel has historically discriminated against Palestinian travellers regardless of whether or not they were also American.
Even the Trump administration had expressed scepticism about Israel becoming a VWP country. “Specifically, the administration in Washington continues to be concerned about the unequal treatments given to US Muslims at entry points and checkpoints,” said a State Department spokesperson in 2017. “We regularly raise the issue of equal treatment of all US citizens at entry points to Israel with the authorities in Israel.”
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) immediately sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the move. “The requirements of the Visa Waiver Program are clear and unambiguous. The U.S. government is obligated to ensure that all Americans are treated equally,” said ADC National Executive Director Abed Ayoub. “It is our intent to hold the US government accountable for any actions that create separate classes of US citizens. Admitting Israel into the Visa Waiver Program would be an endorsement of discrimination against Palestinian and Arab Americans.”
“Israel is clearly not abiding by the reciprocity requirement of the VWP, and nowhere is this clearer than in the treatment of Gaza and Palestinian Americans from Gaza,” Palestinian American community organizer Hani Almadhoun told Mondoweiss at the time. “The guidelines recently issued by Israel on Gaza are filled with inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and conflicting directives. They intentionally create confusion among Palestinian Americans with ties to Gaza in an attempt to discourage them from pursuing their travel plans. As a Palestinian American from Gaza, I am treated as an inherent ‘security risk’ under these new Israeli entry procedures – and by accepting these terms, the U.S. is giving credence to this discriminatory designation.”
Israel’s inclusion was celebrated as a political victory for Netanyahu, who was facing domestic protests at the time. Just a week before the VWP announcement Biden met with the Prime Minister.
“Today, we’re going to discuss some of the hard issues. And that is upholding democratic values that lie at the heart of our partnership, including checks and balances in our systems, and preserving the path to a negotiated two-state solution, and ensuring that Iran never, never acquires a nuclear weapon,” the President told reporters. “Because even where we have some differences. My commitment to Israel … is ironclad. I think without Israel, there’s not a Jew in the world that’s secure. I think Israel is essential.”
These are interesting words to read now, knowing they were delivered less than two weeks before the Hamas attack took place and the genocidal assault on Gaza began.
The issue of the waiver obviously fell from the headlines, but a recent congressional letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from 20 House Democrats points out that Palestinians have faced discrimination under the program. Surprise, surprise.
“Palestinian American physicians have been providing critical medical care that Gazans desperately need, and denying their entry simply because of their heritage is denying a group of people with cultural and ethnic ties to the affected populations, not to mention with essential language skills,” it reads.
“These cases seem to reflect systematic discrimination against U.S. citizens of a certain ethnicity, religion or nationality, which is directly in violation of the program requirements. Additionally, a central requirement of the VWP is that Israel maintains a non-immigrant visa refusal rate below 3%. After October 7, it is uncertain whether Israel has remained under the threshold,” the letter continues.
The letter was led by Reps. Summer Lee (D-PA) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). Signatories also include Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Cori Bush (D-MO), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Greg Casar (D-TX).
“Discrimination under the Visa Waiver Program is unacceptable,” tweeted Lee. “..Every U.S. citizen deserves equal treatment—no exceptions.”
Michael Arria is Mondoweiss’ U.S. correspondents
