WEST PALM BEACH, Florida. – President-elect Donald Trump was nominated Sunday Massad BoulosA Lebanese American businessman who is the stepfather of Trump’s daughter Tiffany as senior advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.

Boulos organized the Trump campaign efforts to engage Michigan’s Arab American community, holding dozens of meetings in areas with large Arab American populations angered by Democratic President Joe Biden’s support for Israeli offensives in Gaza and Lebanon. Trump won the majority Arab-American city of Dearborn Heights en route to sweeping Michigan and other swing states.

“He is a longtime supporter of Republican and conservative values, an asset to my campaign, and has been instrumental in building great new coalitions with the Arab American community,” Trump said in an article on Truth Social .

Both Trump and Boulos have said the Republican president-elect would bring peace to the Middle East, but neither has publicly offered to do so. concrete details on Trump’s plans for the region.

Boulos has previously run for office in Lebanon and has long-standing ties to political figures in the country. Trump’s other picks for key national security posts are strong supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a Trump ally.

Mike Huckabee, Trump’s choice for ambassador to Israel, systematically rejected a Palestinian state in the territories seized by Israel. He claimed that “Palestinians really don’t exist,” referring to the descendants of people who lived in Palestine before Israel was established.

Trump’s choice for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, pleaded for reconstruction a biblical Jewish temple on the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam.

Boulos helped capitalize on divisions within the Democratic base over support for the Israeli offensive in Gaza, where more than 44,000 people have died since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, according to health officials in the Gaza Strip. territory managed by Hamas, who do not know it. separate civilians and combatants in their totals.

Trump won Michigan by just over 10,000 votes in 2016 and Biden took the state back from Democrats in 2020 by about 154,000 votes. Trump won Michigan in November over Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, with 49.7% of the vote.

“Massad is a negotiator and steadfast supporter of PEACE in the Middle East,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Trump, who has long installed family members and their relatives in key positions, is signaling that he will run his second administration in much the same way. Saturday he announced his intention appoint real estate developer Charles Kushnerfather of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to become ambassador to France.

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Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.