President Donald Trump has tapped a marijuana entrepreneur as the US special envoy to Iraq, crediting him with helping rally votes in last year’s election.
Mark Savaya is the founder of Leaf and Bud, an indoor cannabis-growing company in Detroit with prominent advertising around the city, the largest in the Midwestern state of Michigan.
“Mark’s deep understanding of the Iraq-US relationship, and his connections in the region, will help advance the interests of the American people,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
“Mark was a key player in my campaign in Michigan, where he, and others, helped secure a record vote with Muslim Americans.”
Savaya is not Muslim but comes from the Chaldean community.
Marijuana is illegal in Iraq, which maintains the death penalty for major drug trafficking cases.
Trump won the critical state of Michigan in part by making inroads with its sizable Arab-American community on issues that included the Gaza war.
Trump nominated another Arab-American from Michigan, Mayor Amer Ghalib of the Detroit-area town of Hamtramck, as ambassador to Kuwait, but his nomination is being held up in the US Senate after scrutiny on his statements on Israel.
Trump has relied heavily on special envoys, who answer to him and do not need Senate confirmation, over traditional ambassadors.
Savaya wrote on X that he is “committed to strengthening the US–Iraq partnership under President Trump’s leadership and guidance.”
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© Agence France-Presse
