Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, November 30th.

Today on Forbes, how Trump's Middle East envoy pick became a billionaire.

In mid-November, President-elect Donald Trump watched the sixth test flight of SpaceX's

Starship rocket alongside Elon Musk at the mega-billionaire's launch site in

Brownsville, Texas. The pair were joined by Steve Whitkoff, Trump's longtime friend, and a fellow

real estate developer. Whitkoff, who is 67 years old, has been by Trump's side on the campaign

trail for months. When a Secret Service agent assigned to protect Trump

fired at a gunman hiding in the shrubs near the sixth hole at the Trump International Golf Club

in West Palm Beach in September, Trump was golfing with Whitkoff. A month later, Whitkoff spoke at

Trump's Madison Square Garden rally. And in the hectic final day of the campaign, as Trump held rallies in

Pennsylvania and Michigan on November 4th, before returning home to Marlago to watch the results the next day,

he was followed again by Whitkoff, whose Gulfstream private jet crisscrossed the country in Trump's

toe. At the rally in Manhattan in October, Whitkoff said, quote,

Our city has drifted away from what it once was, but if there's one man who can restore it to its

greatness, it's my dear friend President Donald J. Trump. I've known the president for over 30 years,

not just as a leader, but as a friend. In yet another case of the president-elect naming someone from his circle of friends

to a position in his new administration, Trump appointed Whitkoff, co-chairman of his inaugural

committee on November 9th, and named him as a special envoy to the Middle East four days later.

He's expected to continue the work of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner,

who helped negotiate the Abraham Accords between Israel and two Gulf states during Trump's first term.

Kushner has said he won't be formally involved in the new administration and will stay focused on a

Saudi Arabia-backed private equity firm, which has helped boost his fortune to an

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