A new report might make people wonder if Tiffany Trump’s young, aspiring businessman husband Michael Boulous married just for love — or also to benefit himself and his family financially from access to her father, the past and future president of the United States.
On his own, Boulos pocketed some $300,000 from the sale of a super yacht to Tiffany Trump’s brother-in-law Jared Kushner at a massively inflated price, according to an investigative report by the New York Times. The sale was made by an international brokerage firm, owned by Boulos’ cousin, which overcharged the seemingly business savvy Kushner by millions of dollars and worked to conceal the true price.
Boulos married Donald Trump’s fourth child in a lavish wedding at his Mar-a-Lago private club in November 2022, around the time he announced he would run again for his second term in the White House. But even before the wedding, Boulos, the son of a Lebanese-born business tycoon, began to use Trump family connections to make deals, the New York Times reported.
Sometime after he knelt down one one knee in the White House Rose Garden in January 2021 to propose to Tiffany Trump, he specifically identified Kushner, the husband of Tiffany’s big half-sister, as a potential client, the Times said.
Daughter of former US President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump with her husband former US government official Jared Kushner followed by her sister Tiffany Trump and her husband Michael Boulos arrive for the last day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 18, 2024. Donald Trump will get a hero’s welcome Thursday as he accepts the Republican Party’s nomination to run for US president in a speech capping a convention dominated by the recent attempt on his life. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Boulos and his cousin, Jimmy Frangi, a yacht broker, pitched Kushner on the idea of buying an unfinished, 50-meter yacht, suggesting he could pay to refurbish and sell it or lease it out for other rich people to use, the New York Times reported. By June 2021, documents show that Boulos sent Kushner sales presentations about the boat, which was later named the Solstice.
Frangi’s company told Kushner that the price to acquire the yacht was 12.5 million euros, or about $15 million at the time, the Times reported. That included a flat brokerage commission of 1 million euros for Boulos, Frangi and their colleagues.
“Just so we understand the business deal,” Kushner said on a call, according to portions of a transcript viewed by the New York Times. “You are going to make 1 million on the closing.”
But the Times reported that Frangi’s firm stood to make much more than that, according to text messages he sent. That’s because the brokers were spending millions less to acquire the yacht than they told Kushner. “THIS MAKES US 3.5,” Frangi told an associate, according to the Times.
The firm also worked to conceal the true terms of the deal from Kushner, with an executive saying it would be “difficult to hide” and that it was important that Kushner not hire an independent appraiser.
It’s not clear if Boulos knew about this effort to conceal the details of the yacht sale from his future wife’s brother-in-law because he was not copied in on these messages, the Times reported. But Boulos expressed displeasure when the firm learned that Kushner’s lawyer was trying to hit pause on the deal. He even invoked his future wife’s name in telling his colleagues: “Me and Tiffany are pissed off.”
The sale eventually closed in early 2022, with Frangi saying he made about $400,000 from the commission and Boulos earning $300,000, the Times reported. But Kushner eventually realized he had been overcharged by about $2.5 million, according to another broker, who recounted the deal during a financial dispute with Frangi.
At one point, Kushner confronted Frangi, but it’s not known if he ever had any words with Boulos, the Times reported. It’s also not known if the super yacht issue caused any ongoing friction between the two future in-laws or their wives. A spokesperson for Kushner declined to comment on the deal to the Times, saying only that Boulos was doing a “great job” working to find a new buyer for the yacht, which still hasn’t been finished. A representative for Tiffany Trump and Boulos also told the Times: “Mr. Boulos is proud of and honored by his close, familial relationship with Mr. Kushner.”
Meanwhile, Tiffany and Ivanka Trump were all about sisterly solidarity on Nov. 12, 2022, when Tiffany Trump married Boulos.
On social media, Ivanka Trump gushed about her “baby sister” the day after the wedding, according to Us Weekly. Tiffany is the only daughter of Trump and his second wife, Marla Maples.
“When I was 12 years old my dream of having a baby sister came true!” Ivanka Trump wrote the day after the wedding. “From the first moment I held @tiffanytrump in my arms and looked into those big, kind, curious eyes I was smitten.”
Ivanka Trump has long been known as their father’s favorite child and was his White House senior adviser during his first term, as was Kushner. On her Instagram post, Ivanka Trump added: “I wish Tiffany and Michael an abundance of happiness and joy as they begin their lives together as husband and wife! May their love be a source of light in this world!”
In reply, Tiffany Trump wrote: “I love you.”
