Turkish billionaire’s yacht hosts Trump’s daughter while father-in-law seals oil deals: Report
Turkish billionaire’s yacht hosts Trump’s daughter while father-in-law seals oil deals: Report
Tiffany Trump and her husband, Michael Boulos, spent the summer cruising on a luxury yacht owned by a Turkish billionaire with interests in Libyan oil while her father-in-law and US envoy Massad Boulos worked on Libyan energy matters, a New York Times report said on Thursday.
The report is the latest to showcase an interlocking web of interests between the Boulos family and Libya - an oil-rich and war-wracked country in North Africa - which diplomats in the region have long told Middle East Eye could be a source of conflict of interest for the Trump administration.
Tiffany and Michael cruised in the French Riviera aboard the Phoenix 2, a super yacht owned by Turkish billionaire Ercument Bayegan and his wife, Ruya Bayegan. The report did not say whether the Boulos family paid for use of the yacht, but the last time the Phoenix 2 was chartered, it was rented for over $1.4 million per week.
Tiffany is the fourth child of US President Donald Trump. She most recently appeared by her father’s side, along with Michael, at a state dinner on Wednesday hosted by the British royal family.
Massad is a Lebanese-American businessman. He played a leading role lobbying the US Arab community - especially in Michigan - to vote for Trump during the 2024 presidential election.
Trump named Massad as a senior advisor to the Middle East and later as an envoy to Africa.
Massad has irritated rank-and-file US diplomats by floating above the established bureaucracy, at first in Lebanon, where he held informal meetings with Lebanese political operators and more recently in Africa. The Trump administration has also become frustrated with what they view as his sloppiness in mixing personal business and politics, a source familiar with the matter told MEE.
MEE was the first to reveal that Massad held secret discussions in Doha, Qatar, with a powerful Libyan official about a plan for the Trump administration to unlock tens of billions of dollars in frozen funds in return for some of that money being channelled back to US companies working in Libya on energy and infrastructure.
The New York Times on Thursday confirmed the report.
The funds have been frozen in the United States since 2011, when a Nato-backed uprising ousted former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Such a move could violate UN Security Council sanctions on Libya.
Massad Boulous' record as envoy
Libya has been riven by war since Gaddafi’s removal and death in October 2011.
The country is divided into two, with an internationally recognised government in Tripoli and a government in the east led by former general Khalifa Haftar.
The two sides fought a bloody war in 2019, with Haftar attempting to conquer Tripoli. The fighting devolved into a proxy battle with Turkey backing the United Nations-recognised government, and Russia, Egypt, and the UAE supporting Haftar.
Both sides are jockeying for influence and access to Libya’s oil riches.
Massad has had several engagements in Libya with Ibrahim Dbeibeh, the powerful national security advisor and a relative of the Tripoli-based Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh.
The New York Times reported that Ibrahim and Massad had a private dinner at a seaside villa in Libya in July after Massad publicly discussed energy deals in the country.
MEE also reported in August that Ibrahim was involved in discussions with the US about accepting forcibly displaced Palestinians from Gaza. Massad denied taking part in those discussions to MEE.
Michael and Tiffany’s trip aboard the Phoenix 2 is not the first time the family has come under the spotlight for extravagant yachting ventures.
The New York Times reported in August that the US president's other son-in-law and former Middle East advisor, Jared Kushner, was overcharged $2.5m for a yacht by an international yacht brokerage firm owned by a Boulos family cousin, for whom Michael worked.
Massad has also struggled to find his diplomatic feet among Arab leaders, despite coming from the region. He has irked Egyptian officials over his actions in Libya, MEE has reported.
In July, he appeared to be caught flat-footed when Tunisian President Kais Saied greeted him in Tunis with photos of starving Palestinian children in Gaza, saying it was "time for all of humanity to wake up”.
The Trump administration has provided unparalleled support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and usually forcefully pushes back against such claims.
Massad also lobbied for a meeting with King Mohammed VI of Morocco this summer, according to the New York Times. US officials told their Moroccan counterparts to deny his request.
