Tiffany Trump's Big Moment: Finally!
Why Donald Trump is suddenly talking about his other son-in-law, Michael Boulos
Some people have all the luck.
Consider the case of the fortuitous timing of Tiffany Trump’s pregnancy, announced last week in Detroit, by her proud father.
At first, when I read about it, I thought naively: Oh, how nice! It’s great that he cares so much about Tiffany that he wants to share this…
And then, I realized after I watched his interview on Sunday with the Saudi government funded TV network, Al Arabiya, that I was being dumb.
Tiffany Trump’s husband, Michael Boulos, is Lebanese. He was born in Lebanon and raised in Nigeria.
Detroit is in the swing state of Michigan, where there is a big Arab American community that’s voted Democrat for over 20 years, following 9/11.
But that community, according to today’s Washington Post, is now divided over whether to vote for Kamala Harris, seeing her as aligned with President Biden’s staunch support of Israel. According to the Post, many may not vote at all.
After, his speech to Detroit’s Economic club, Trump reportedly met with two local Imams, courtesy of Michael Boulos’s businessman father, Massad Boulos, who has reportedly been lobbying Michigan’s Arab Americans on behalf of the Trump campaign for the past six months.
And Tiffany’s pregnancy enabled Trump to talk out of both sides of his mouth on his Al Arabiya interview last Sunday: on the one hand saying Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu should feel free to do whatever he wants in terms of bombing Lebanon and Iran, and on the other saying that he’s thrilled he’s going to have a grandchild who is half-Arab and he wants Lebanon to be a place his family can visit.
I’m happy about it. I have many friends who are Arab, as you say, but from different countries, but Arab, and I’m very happy about this. They’re very warm people. It’s a shame what’s happening over there. They’re the warmest people. Michael’s father’s so great; his mother’s so great. They’re friends of mine. Michael’s such a great young man. He’s such a smart guy. And they’re gonna have a baby and I’m very happy about it.
I’ve never thought much about Tiffany Trump or Michael Boulos.
It’s possible that, until recently, neither has Donald Trump. You’ll recall that Trump’s personal assistant Madeleine Westerhout was fired in 2019 after knocking back a couple of drinks and telling reporters that Trump couldn’t pick Tiffany out of a crowd.
But that was before Tiffany got married to Michael at Mar-a-Lago in 2022 following a courtship conducted far from proletariat view, in a bunch of private members clubs in London and Europe.
Thus an opportunity arose. Coincidence?
Remember, Trump endorsed Jared and Ivanka’s union only after it was pointed out to him that the Kushners were richer than the Trumps. And as for the Kushners? I reported in Kushner, Inc. how the late Howard Rubenstein gave Jared a three point plan to rehabilitate the family name after his dad went to jail: 1. Buy a newspaper. 2. Marry someone prominent. 3. Buy a New York trophy building.
It isn’t just Michael’s Lebanese roots that could be helpful to Trump. Remember, how upset Nigeria was when he described certain African nations as “shithole” countries?
Meanwhile the lobbying efforts of Michael’s dad, Massad, in Michigan have been so successful that a couple nights ago, the British journalist Anna Botting kicked off an interview with him on Sky News: “Are you the man who is single-handedly going to win Michigan for Trump?’
Massad - who, disappointingly, has a copy of Jared Kushner’s memoir on the bookshelf behind him - appeared thrilled to have been asked the question, which he didn’t quite answer.
In fact, as he talked, it became apparent that the guy was clearly thrilled just to be on TV. He not only defended Trump’s Muslim Ban - “it wasn’t a ban so much as a pause” - he was so unctuous about Trump - “The energy this great man has is unparalleled” - that I could see why Botting shrewdly ultimately asked Boulos if he had ambitions of his own to be in the White House. (He said no, but, again, he looked extremely pleased to have been asked.)
So who the heck is Massad Boulos?
Is he someone we should be looking at more closely? Will he have outsized influence in a future Trump administration? Is he even a billionaire? Reports seem to be mixed.
How much clout does he carry in the Middle East? It’s been reported in Newsweek that he’s said he’s connected to Hezbollah’s newly-elected president.
You’ll recall I reported how Trump’s other longtime Lebanese American friend, Tom Barrack, really was someone with extraordinary influence in many Middle East countries, including, obviously Lebanon - but, recently Barrack has kept a low profile after being acquitted of charges of spying for the United Arab Emirates.
I phoned around my Middle East sources to ask about the Boulos family.
But I struck out. No one had heard of Massad Boulos. Maybe I’m a bad reporter. Or maybe the guy is a lot more important in Michigan than he is in Lebanon.
Do any of you know anything about the Boulos family? If so, write and let me know!
Meanwhile, I will continue to watch and report on the rise of this intriguing new addition to the Trump family.
It seems Tiffany’s pregnancy was advantageously-timed for more than just one of her relatives.
Hi Nigerian (who also has folks/contacts in the Middle East) here:
The Boulous family are West African-Lebanese royalty. They have Nigerian citizenship, in addition to Lebanese. They are quite influential both amongst the Lebanese African diaspora, but also within general Nigerian society too. In Lebanon Massad Boulous and his relatives and allied families are tied in with the Free Patriotic Movemment of former President Michael Aoun, but also with the rest of the March 8 Alliance (Amal Movement and Hizb especially).
In the past when Nigeria had issues with Hizb over weapons transshipments through Western African ports from Iran to Hizb in Lebanon, he (and other friends of his) smoothed things over. Same with when circa 2015-2017 Iranian weapons were turning up in small quantities in the hands of Boko Haram and other Sahelian insurgencies, and Nigerian security services fingered Lebanese-African smuggling networks tied to Hizb, he was very instrumental in smoothing things over and getting Hizb to put an end to what was entrepreneurial trading by its associates.
I hope this helps you better understand the Boulous clan, cheers!
In her bride photo, Tiffany looks like the young Donald in drag. She's a spitting image of her old man.
Mr. Boulos is further proof of Trump's hypocrisy when it comes to immigrants. His presence in the Trump family must have Nick Fuentes and Stephen Miller fuming, though the latter is hardly an All-American boy himself.