In the first episode of <em>Tonight's Chat</em>, a new online interview series exclusively on <em>The National</em>, host <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Karam">Ricardo Karam</a> is in conversation with <a href="http://www.clny.com/about#leadership">Thomas Barrack, Jr</a>. Mr Barrack, a Lebanese-American, is a close confidant of US President Donald Trump. He is executive chairman of the investment firm Colony Capital and an influential figure in building US economic links in the Middle East. Mr Barrack discusses the evolution of the United States' role in the region, Arab-American identity, Palestine and Israel, George Floyd and Mr Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, among other subjects. On Mr Trump, Mr Barrack says: "I don't agree with many of the presentation policies of President Trump ... I think he's done as good a job as anyone would do on very complicated matters, Covid-19 included." On his own investment strategies, Mr Barrack recommends targeting "all things digital". And on the future of the global economy, Mr Barrack points to the defining feature of today's socioeconomic landscape as being "a difference between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'".
