Massad Boulos
Massad Fares Boulos is a Lebanese-born American businessman. He serves as Senior Advisor to the President of USA on Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs and concurrently as Senior Advisor for Africa at the U.S. Department of State. He is the father of Michael Boulos, who is married to Trump's daughter Tiffany, making Boulos and Trump co-fathers-in-law. He campaigned for Trump's successful presidential campaign in the 2024 presidential election in Arab American communities, particularly in Michigan.
Boulos worked as the CEO of SCOA Nigeria PLC, a heavy truck assembly and heavy machinery dealership company.
Early life
Boulos was born in Kfaraakka, Koura, Lebanon, to Arab Christian parents Fares and Marie-Therese. He is the eldest of four siblings, Vivian, Philip and Michel. His father Fares Boulos served as mayor of Kfaraakka from 1998 to 2010. They are Lebanese Greek Orthodox Christian.He moved to Texas as a teenager. He graduated in 1993 from the University of Houston–Downtown with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. He also holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. While he was described by President Donald Trump as "an accomplished lawyer," public records show that although he applied to take the Texas bar exam in 1996, he does not appear to be a licensed attorney in Texas.
Career
In business
After completing his education, Boulos moved to Nigeria and became the CEO of SCOA Nigeria PLC. SCOA is a heavy truck assembly and heavy machinery dealership company that operates as part of the Fadoul Group, a business conglomerate based in West Africa.His decades-long career in West Africa's industrial sector provided him with a practical understanding of the infrastructure, logistics, and private-sector dynamics that underpin economic development on the continent. Some analyses have framed his work as part of the "industrial backbone" powering African growth, highlighting his role in managing critical supply lines for machinery, transport, and construction. This perspective positions his business experience as foundational to his later diplomatic role, equipping him with on-the-ground knowledge of cross-border trade, regulatory environments, and the importance of industrial self-reliance for African economies.
Following Trump's announcement that he would appoint Boulos as a presidential advisor, he was subject to scrutiny by some media outlets regarding his business record and public profile.
Media outlets initially described SCOA as a "multi-billion dollar conglomerate". A New York Times article asserted discrepancies between this description and its documented business background. As reported by the New York Times, the company' shares trade for about two Nigerian naira, roughly a tenth of a US cent, a penny stock with a market capitalization worth about $865,000 as of 2024. Boulos holds a minority share of $1.53 according to the company's latest annual report. When asked to confirm the multibillion-dollar valuation of his company, he said that describing it as "multibillion dollar" company was accurate, that "it's a big company" and that he referred to the Fadoul Group's companies, collectively worth more than $1 billion. He further added that "I've never gone into any details like that about the value".
Several reports misidentified Massad Boulos as the owner of Boulos Enterprises owned by another family of the same name. He confirmed to the NYT that he had no relationship with Boulos Enterprises, and that he did not correct public reports because he made a practice of not commenting on his businesses.
Following media scrutiny of Boulos' business track record, the Trump-Vance transition team and Boulos himself rebuked the accusations, with spokesperson Karoline Leavitt calling the stories "fake news". The Transition Team issued a statement answering to the article published by the Business Insider declaring that: "The truth is Mr. Boulos is a highly respected businessman who has proudly served as the CEO of some of his family's group of companies based in West Africa for more than 27 years and his family has employed tens of thousands of people around the globe". Several Nigerian media outlets published an op-ed penned by Magnus Onyibe, credited as a non-executive independent director at SCOA, echoing Leavitt's press release and describing the company's achievements in Nigeria and West Africa.
Lebanese politics
Both his father and grandfather were known figures in Lebanese politics, as his great uncle, Massad, served in Parliament and his father, Fares, served as Mayor of Kfarkaara. Boulos is acquainted with Christian politicians and parties in Lebanon from Suleiman Frangieh of the Marada Movement, considered aligned with Hezbollah, to the Free Patriotic Movement and anti-Hezbollah opposition parties like the Lebanese Forces. However, he has mentioned in interviews that he is not affiliated with any party in Lebanon and that he is acquainted with most Lebanese Christian leaders.. In a September 2025 interview with Al Jazeera, he stated that Hezbollah and all armed organizations in Lebanon should be fully disarmed.According to Century Foundation's analyst Aron Lund, quoting a report in As-Safir, Boulos was a supporter of Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and represented it in Nigeria, where his father-in-law did business and funded the party's activities. When asked about his relation with the FPM, which elected Michel Aoun as president with support from Hezbollah, Boulos said that "as Lebanese Christians, most of us supported President Aoun's calls for Lebanese sovereignty from the late 1980's to the early 2000's ; in fact in 2005, he enjoyed the support of close to 80% of Lebanese Christians as well as Muslims." In October 2024, the Free Patriotic Movement declared they were no longer bound by their previous alliance.
AP reported that Boulos initially stood for parliament in Koura, but withdrew for another list involving the FPM, Marada and the communists. In 2009, the FPM shortlisted him, but Aoun eventually chose another candidate. By 2018, he again pledged his support to Marada. He subsequently denied ever running for Parliament.
Lund writes that Boulos' career "does not exactly indicate a firm commitment to either side in Lebanese or regional politics", and that his appointment suggests that Trump's Middle East policy "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." He also mentioned that Boulos' connections could be highly useful "if Trump were to lean the other way and pursue his isolationist instincts, aiming to deescalate ongoing wars, deconflict with Iran, and scale down the U.S. presence in the region." Analyst Mitchell Plitnick saw Boulos as "a businessman and political opportunist" but that his nomination signaled the administration's willingness to engage with the Palestinians.
US politics
Boulos has been involved in Republican politics for decades, and worked as a volunteer during George W. Bush's 1994 campaign for governor of Texas. During the 2024 US presidential elections, Boulos campaigned for Trump in Muslim and Arab communities with Bishara Bahbah, who founded Arabs for Trump, and Richard Grenell. He sought to portray Trump as supportive of "global peace", according to Bahbah. In an interview with The Times, he said that "There are 3.5 million Arab Americans, which is a huge number, and they just want their voices to be heard. And Trump has been listening". Despite that, there was criticism over his outreach during some meetings, as some attendees criticized Trump's policies regarding Jerusalem.Yassin K. Fawaz, a political analyst, credits Boulos as bridging "the gap between Trump's campaign and these communities, ensuring that their concerns were not only heard but acted upon".
Diplomacy and peace initiatives
Massad Boulos has been involved in several international diplomatic efforts, particularly during the Trump administration, focusing on conflict resolution in Africa and the Middle East. In an interview, Boulos summarized the administration's Africa policy as based on "peace, partnerships and prosperity," shifting focus from aid to trade and stating that while democracy is appreciated, the U.S. policy is "not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries."In North Africa, Boulos helped spearhead a diplomatic initiative to build global support for Morocco's Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara. This effort culminated in a United Nations General Assembly vote in September 2025, which saw a majority of member states vote in favor of the plan, marking a significant shift in the international approach to the long-standing dispute. The plan had been officially endorsed by President Donald Trump earlier that year.
Following the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Boulos was a key architect behind the Washington Accord of 2025, a peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda aimed at de-escalating tensions in the Great Lakes region. Analysts described his role as pivotal in driving the negotiations to a successful conclusion.
Boulos has also been involved in addressing the conflict in Sudan. As the conflict falls within his diplomatic remit, he has participated in the development of a proposed three-part peace plan developed in coordination with the Quad, aiming to broker a ceasefire and initiate a sustainable political process.
Additionally, Boulos has been involved with the U.S.-backed Lobito Corridor, a railway and port project linking the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia to Angola's Atlantic coast. The administration has expressed support for the initiative, which has been described as part of broader U.S. efforts to promote investment-led infrastructure projects in Africa alongside alternatives to Chinese and Russian-backed developments.