Adam Boehler, CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, speaks at the Coronavirus Task Force’s daily briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 14, 2020.
Leah Millis | Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he has appointed Adam Boehler, CEO of Nashville-based healthcare investment firm Rubicon Founders, to be special presidential envoy for the hostage crisis. did.
Mr. Boehler was the negotiator. Abraham Accords In 2020, he contributed to the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries. Mr. Boehler worked with his friend Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and then-senior White House adviser.
“He has negotiated with some of the most hardline people in the world, including the Taliban,” President Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday announcing Boehler’s selection. “Adam will continue to work tirelessly to bring our great American people home.”
Boehler responded to the announcement with his own post, writing, “Nothing is more important than bringing Americans home. Under the leadership of @realDonaldTrump, there will finally be action and results. We will bring them home. I will do it,” he wrote.
President Trump’s announcement by Boehler comes on the heels of news that Omer Neutra, an American national held hostage in Gaza and believed to be alive, was actually killed in a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. It was carried out following.
On the same day that Neutra’s death was announced by Israeli authorities, President Trump announced that if the hostages held by Hamas were not released by the inauguration on January 20, 2025, “there will be hell in the Middle East.” “There will be hell waiting for us,” he warned.
As of Thursday, approx. 100 hostages They are still being held in Gaza, according to NBC News. More than 30 of the hostages are believed to have been killed within 14 months of being taken.
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anyone in the long history of the United States of America. Release the hostages now!” Trump wrote in a post on Monday.
Long-running negotiations to free the hostages and end a ceasefire in Gaza were called off in November after Qatari mediators became frustrated with what they said was a lack of sincere efforts by the parties at the table.
A few weeks later, Trump’s incoming special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited Qatar and Israel. Reuters reported This raised the prospect that the Gulf state could resume its mediating role in future negotiations.
But over the next six weeks, the Biden administration will firmly take the lead in all negotiations. The White House reportedly viewed Witkoff’s meeting not as a full-fledged diplomatic effort, but as an opportunity for him to better understand the situation.
Boehler will take over the role currently held by Roger Carstens, the special envoy for hostage affairs who was appointed by President Trump in 2020. Carstens was one of the rare Trump appointees retained by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2021.
During the first Trump administration, Boehler also served as chief executive officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, which was created to bring together multiple U.S. international funding agencies under one roof.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the new agency is also tasked with coordinating parts of the medical supply chain, some of which were working under Emergency Defense Production Act orders from the White House.
The agency faced criticism in 2021. government oversight agency The report found that the company had defaulted on loans promised with the appropriated funds. In response, DFC said the loan approval process had become far more complicated than originally expected.
