The Family Business

Janet Levy: 

Peloni:  Oy gevalt!   This is must read article.  See very brief summary below.

by Armin Rosen | Tablet | July 9, 2026

Trump and Massad Boulos during a campaign event in 2024Trump and Massad Boulos during a campaign event in 2024

Click Link to Read Article

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/family-business-armin-rosen

Brief summary:

Armin Rosen examines the rise of Massad Boulos from a businessman in Nigeria to one of the Trump administration’s senior advisers on African affairs, using his career to explore broader changes in the conduct of American foreign policy.  In doing so, Rosen offers a great deal of insight into not only the Trump administration, but how American policies might be perceived abroad.

Rosen follows Boulos’ decades in Nigeria, his business relationships with influential figures, and his family connection to Donald Trump through his son Michael’s marriage to Tiffany Trump, the result from which which positioned him to become an unusually and highly influential diplomat in Trump’s second term as president.

Rosen traces begins with Boulos’ long association with Nigeria’s political and business elite, particularly the Chagoury family and President Bola Tinubu, while examining a troubling depiction of the religious violence raised against Christians and Boulos’ public defense of the Nigerian government’s approach on this matter. He also raises questions about Boulos’ broad diplomatic authority, ethics disclosures, and the overlap between his government responsibilities and longstanding business relationships.

Rosen’s essay also follows Boulos’ transition from Middle East adviser to Africa envoy, his involvement in diplomacy across the continent, and includes his efforts at pursuing peace between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as his role in negotiations tied to strategic mineral resources.

Throughout this highly granular report, Rosen shares an image of Boulos as representing a symbol of a larger transformation taking place more generally within American governance, thus making the argument that the second Trump administration increasingly relies on personal relationships, family ties, and business networks rather than traditional diplomatic institutions. Rosen concludes that Boulos’ career illustrates how individual influence and transactional relationships have become increasingly central to the US administration’s approach to foreign policy.

 

 

July 30, 2026 | 4 Comments »

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4 Comments / 4 Comments

  1. Email received from Paul Schnee:

    In the above highly disturbing article by Armin Rosen of TABLET which you published last week I was particularly angered by the paragraph below. The time for DT to relieve Witkoff and Kushner of their responsibilities is long overdue. They are so hopelessly compromised that they cannot be trusted to faithfully represent the interests of America. There are over 40,000 people who work in the State Department, many of whom are highly qualified and could be relied upon to discharge their duties with vigor and honesty. That prompts the question, how did we end up with these two dangerous clowns? Of course, to ask the question is to answer it.

    We know the many things for which the country should be grateful to Trump, but he has no right to prioritize the fortunes of his family and friends over our national security interests. The optics of this could not be worse. I’m surprised that the media isn’t making more of it.

      “Trump in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, received a $2 billion investment from a Saudi government fund when Trump was out of office. The month before Trump took office again, Affinity got a $1.5 billion cash infusion from Qatar—which had previously spent an estimated $1 billion to rescue the Kushner family real estate empire from its much-heralded and financially disastrous purchase of 666 Fifth Ave. The Qataris also came to the rescue of Trump confidante and future Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, who sold the troubled Park Lane Hotel to the Qatar Investment Authority for $623 million in 2023. In the spring of 2025, after Trump had returned to the White House, an Emirati sovereign wealth fund bought $2 billion worth of a dollar-pegged crypto token issued by World Liberty Financial, which was co-founded by Steve Witkoff’s sons Zach and Alex and co-managed by President Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr. The net worth of the president and his family has grown by $2 billion since the start of his second term, according to Trump’s latest financial disclosures, in large part because of cryptocurrency investments. In January, Alex Witkoff went to Islamabad to sign a deal with Pakistan’s finance minister that would allow WLF-issued tokens to be used in cross-border transactions in Pakistan. Pakistani General Asim Munir, future negotiator of U.S.-Iranian peace—alongside his Qatari counterparts, of course—stood directly behind Witkoff during the signing ceremony.”

  3. the second Trump administration increasingly relies on personal relationships, family ties, and business networks rather than traditional diplomatic institutions.

    Let’s be honest. Who can Trump really trust?

    • @dreuveni
      Yes, that is where much of this stems from, but the implications of choosing advisors from personally connected allies/family relations rather than from traditional sources of diplomats has some very unfavorable consequences, both for the governance which might come from using these alternatively sourced diplomats, but also from the perspective of foreign nations whose expectations from the US will likewise reciprocate to the implication of America openly embracing cronyism among the president’s highest advisors.