Thomas J. Barrack, Jr.

Thomas Joseph Barrack Jr. (born April 28, 1947) is an American diplomat, private equity real estate investor and the founder and retired chairman of Colony Capital, a publicly traded real estate investment trust. Following his U.S. Senate confirmation, Barrack has served as United States Ambassador to Turkey since May 2025.

Barrack has for decades been a close friend of and fundraiser for U.S. President Donald Trump, representing him in television news appearances. He was senior advisor to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and served as the chairman of his Inaugural Committee. In Trump's second administration, Barrack serves as the United States Ambassador to Turkey, United States Special Envoy for Syria and the United States Special Envoy for Iraq.

Barrack's grandparents were Lebanese Christians who immigrated in 1900 to the United States from Zahlé. Barrack was raised in Culver City, California, where his father was a grocer and his mother was a secretary.

In 1969, Barrack earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern California (USC), where he participated on their varsity rugby team. He then attended the USC Gould School of Law, where he was an editor of the Southern California Law Review, before receiving a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1972.

Barrack's first job was at the law firm of Herbert W. Kalmbach, President Richard Nixon's personal lawyer. In 1972, the firm sent him to Saudi Arabia, where he soon became the squash partner of a Saudi prince. He then worked in the kingdom for the Fluor Corporation, and worked for Saudi princes. Shortly after, he helped open diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Haiti, then ruled by Jean-Claude Duvalier, at the request of investor Lonnie Dunn.

In 1982, Barrack served as deputy undersecretary of the United States Department of the Interior under James G. Watt in the Reagan administration. The Secret Service would board its horses at Barrack's ranch when President Ronald Reagan was at his nearby Rancho del Cielo. Watt made his resignation announcement at Barrack's ranch. Barrack says he became disillusioned with government service after he was required to testify before a congressional committee due to a gift Barrack had paid to the purchaser of then-Attorney General Edwin Meese's house.

In 1987, Barrack was later a principal with the Robert M. Bass Group. In 1985, Barrack first dealt with Donald Trump when he sold Trump a one-fifth stake in the Alexander's department stores. In 1988, Trump agreed to pay Barrack $410 million for total ownership of the Plaza Hotel. He later lost both properties in bankruptcy.

In 1990, Barrack founded Colony Capital, with initial investments by Bass and GE Capital, and later Eli Broad, Merrill Lynch, and Koo Chen-fu. Barrack achieved 50% profits in his first two years by focusing on distressed properties, including the federal Resolution Trust Corporation. He has invested some $200 million in Middle East real estate, $534 million in non-performing German real estate loans, and made a $24 million loan to photographer Annie Leibovitz. He also owned Neverland Ranch which was once the home of mega superstar Michael Jackson. Through Colony Capital, he runs a $25 billion portfolio of assets, from the Fairmont Raffles Hotels International hotel chain in Asia, the Aga Khan's former resort in Sardinia, Resorts International Holdings, One&Only Resorts, Atlantis, etc.

Colony American Homes was criticized for treating tenants poorly during the Great Recession, raising rents, evicting people in large numbers and failing to maintain properties.

Barrack has previously negotiated drilling rights with Mana Al Otaiba. In 2009, Barrack negotiated with Otaiba's son, Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, the sale of a $41 million stake in the Raffles L'Ermitage hotel to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

In 2010, Barrack bought $70 million of Jared Kushner's debt on 666 Fifth Avenue. Kushner later avoided bankruptcy when Barrack agreed to reduce his obligations after a request by Trump.

Barrack endorsed Donald Trump during the 2016 United States presidential election. He was a major fundraiser for Trump's campaign through the "Rebuilding America Now" Super PAC, which raised $23 million.

Barrack recommended that Trump hire Paul Manafort as his campaign manager. Barrack first met Manafort in the 1970s when they were both working for the Saudis and living in Beirut. In 2007, Barrack had loaned Manafort $1.5 million to refinance a home in the Hamptons.

On April 26, 2016, Barrack began an email correspondence with one of his business partners, UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, reassuring him that Trump had investments in the UAE. "The emails were the beginning of Mr. Trump's improbable transformation from a candidate who campaigned against Muslims to a president celebrated in the royal courts of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi," according to New York Times writer David D. Kirkpatrick, who characterized this as a testament to Barrack's "unique place in the Trump world". On May 26, Barrack wrote to Otaiba to introduce Jared Kushner, and the two met later that month. On July 13, Barrack conveyed to Otaiba that Trump had removed from the Republican party platform the plank calling for the release of the 28 pages of redacted information from the 9/11 Commission Report.

On July 21, Barrack spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention. In September 2016, Barrack helped set up a meeting between Trump and the Emir of Qatar in Trump Tower, although, as Kilpatrick noted, none of the investments brought in from the gulf by Barrack's firm in the two years following that meeting came from Qatar. After Trump became president, Barrack continued to act as a middleman between him and Arab princes.

Barrack served as chairman of the committee overseeing the 2017 Trump inauguration, for which he raised over $100 million, doubling the previous record. Barrack hired Rick Gates, first to help run the inauguration and, following that, as a consultant for his company. Gates was fired from the latter position in October 2017, the day he was indicted.

In December 2024, President Trump nominated Barrack as the new U.S. ambassador to Turkey. The Senate confirmed him in a 60–36 vote on April 29, 2025. He presented his credentials to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on May 14, 2025. He was also selected by Trump as the new United States Special Envoy for Syria on May 23, 2025. He later brokered the July 2025 ceasefire between Israel and Syria amid the Southern Syria clashes, urging Druze, Bedouin, and Sunni factions to disarm and promoting a unified Syrian identity with regional support from Turkey and Jordan.

In August 2025, Barrack was heavily criticized in Lebanon after telling a group of journalists to "act civilized" and describing them as "animalistic" as they questioned him about the Trump Administration's plans for the south of the country, prompting outrage from the Lebanese media and journalists' union. The Lebanese presidency issued a statement expressing regret over the comments by "one of its guests". The backlash caused Barrack to cancel a planned trip the following day to South Lebanon. He later apologized over the remarks.

In his capacity as the U.S. envoy to Syria, Barrack showed himself as "an outspoken advocate" of the Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa. He oversaw the Israeli-Syrian security talks in Paris that opened the way for the Syrian transitional government to conduct the 2026 northeastern Syria offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, a PKK-linked U.S. partner against ISIS during the civil war, and backed the terms of the two ceasefires offered by Sharaa to the SDF later in the month.

In 2014, Barrack married Rachelle Roxborough. They divorced in 2016. He has six children.

His family is based in Los Angeles, California. He also owns a 1,200-acre mountain ranch near Santa Barbara, California, as well as Happy Canyon Vineyards in the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA, and a tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara. He is Roman Catholic. In 2014, Barrack bought a house in Santa Monica for $21 million, which he later sold for $35 million, the highest price for a residence in that area. In 2017, he purchased a $15.5 million home in Aspen, Colorado.

2000, Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement

2005, Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies’ Entrepreneur of the Year Award

2010, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, an award bestowed by the French government for citizens and foreigners