Tiffany Trump’s summer in the Mediterranean is drawing fresh scrutiny after an investigation traced her Instagram posts to the Phoenix 2, a 90-meter superyacht, and placed her and husband Michael Boulos aboard the vessel in mid-to-late July—just as her father-in-law, Massad Boulos, was working on Libya-related energy diplomacy for the Trump administration. Reporters matched backgrounds in her photos to the yacht and used ship-tracking and distinctive onboard fixtures to confirm the timeline; a spokesperson for Rüya Bayegan’s energy trader BGN International said she wasn’t aboard and that the trip had no connection to the company. Whether the Boulos family paid for the yacht’s use remains unclear.
Industry sources cited in the coverage identified the Phoenix 2’s owners as Turkish petrochemicals figures Ercüment and Rüya Bayegan. That point is sensitive—and not perfectly tidy. Yacht registries and long-running industry trackers have historically linked Phoenix 2 to the late Polish billionaire Jan Kulczyk’s family, and trade publications record the yacht’s sale in September 2024 with the buyer undisclosed—illustrating how beneficial ownership can be opaque and shift through holding structures. In other words, the attribution to the Bayegans is being reported, but older open-source ownership breadcrumbs point to the Kulczyk estate and a 2024 change of hands.
The Times-led reporting also found the Trump–Boulos party alternating between Phoenix 2 and a second vessel, Magna Grecia, for roughly ten days. Records tie Magna Grecia to a conglomerate controlled by Greek billionaire Ioannis Papalekas, who also controls access to Le Grand Jardin—the only private estate on Île Sainte-Marguerite off Cannes—where Tiffany Trump and her mother, Marla Maples, were photographed during the trip. Rental listings for the estate put peak-season rates in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per week.
What makes the optics especially combustible is the Libya angle. BGN describes itself as a global energy and commodities trader led by Rüya Bayegan, and independent reporting has documented the company’s significant role in Libya’s oil trade, including crude-for-products swap arrangements with state entities. In March, the Financial Times—citing Libya’s Audit Bureau—reported that BGN-affiliated firms accounted for a large share of the swaps in 2023, while the company insisted its operations complied with local rules and were conducted transparently. BGN’s own materials show a footprint across oil, gas, LPG and related logistics. All of this helps explain why a family holiday intersecting with the company’s interests has set off conflict-of-interest chatter in Washington and Tripoli alike.
Massad Boulos’s portfolio underscores the concern. He was formally appointed the U.S. State Department’s Senior Advisor for Africa in April 2025 and, in that capacity, has been an active public interlocutor on African files—including Congo-Rwanda mediation and regional economic initiatives. U.S. government pages and wire reporting have chronicled his meetings and statements; separate coverage notes Libya-related engagements and commercial announcements around infrastructure and energy. That official role, juxtaposed with hospitality from figures active in Libya’s oil economy, is what critics say risks blurring lines—even if no rule was broken.
Compounding the political theater, Turkey’s main opposition leader, Özgür Özel, alleged last week that Donald Trump Jr. met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Dolmabahçe office in Istanbul in an unannounced visit, which was later confirmed by government officials. Outlets citing opposition accounts and unnamed sources have described it as a “courtesy” encounter focused on business; Turkey’s presidency has issued no public readout. This landed just as Trump announced he will host Erdoğan at the White House on September 25—Erdoğan’s first White House visit since 2019—where trade and defense packages are expected to feature, alongside the long shadow of the S-400/F-35 rupture and ongoing F-16 dealings.
Taken together, the yacht trip, the reported Dolmabahçe drop-by and the impending White House meeting create a tight loop of personal, political and commercial storylines running through the Mediterranean. The central factual claims—Tiffany Trump’s presence aboard Phoenix 2, the overlap with Massad Boulos’s Libya portfolio, BGN’s material exposure to Libyan oil, and Erdoğan’s Washington visit—are well-documented. The edges around beneficial ownership of Phoenix 2 and the precise nature of the Trump Jr.–Erdoğan contact remain less definitive; both are areas to watch as new records or on-the-record statements emerge.
