What did Donald Trump do today?

He gave his son-in-law's father a government job for the second day in a row.

UPDATE, 12/12/2024: According to a New York Times story published December 12, 2024, the description of Massad Boulos below is inaccurate. The NYT reports that the family business from which Boulos derived the billions of dollars he was supposedly worth is actually a small Nigerian trucking outfit belonging to his father-in-law, with Boulos' owned share worth a grand total of $1.53. There is another firm with Boulos in the name that is worth billions of dollars, but Massad Boulos is not part of the family that owns it. In other words, it appears that Boulos has been running a con for most of his life in which he pretended to have wealth he didn't have, in order to ingratiate himself with rich and powerful people—and it appears that Trump, whose vetting of his appointments this time around has been close to nonexistent, fell for it.

Trump said today that he would be appointing Massad Boulos, the father of his daughter Tiffany's husband, as his senior advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. This came less than a day after he announced that his other daughter's father-in-law would be appointed Ambassador to France.

Trump's announcement did not mention the family relationship.

Unlike Charles Kushner, Boulos is not a convicted felon, nor did he ever send a sex tape of his brother-in-law to his own sister. He is, however, a billionaire with private business interests in the Middle East—or, as Trump put it, a "dealmaker" whose deals will now be influenced by his formal role in government. 

Boulos has no diplomatic, military, or national security background, such as would be typical for presidential advisors. He does have some past political affiliations with Hezbollah but, as Middle East expert Aron Lund puts it, he is "more readily understood in light of the personalities orbiting Mar-a-Lago than …in terms of U.S. national interest."

Why does this matter?

• Nepotism is bad because it makes government worse.

• The president is supposed to serve the American people, not make his family richer and more powerful.

• The best person for the job isn't just the richest one you know.

• It shouldn't be this easy for people to fool the President of the United States.