Boris Epshteyn is a powerful figure in the Trump administration, currently serving as Personal Senior Counsel to the President. Despite not holding a traditional Cabinet role, the son of Anna Shulkina and Aleksandr Epshteyn is a critical "gatekeeper" and "wartime consigliere" who wields outsize influence over legal strategy and personnel decisions. He is a "Trump original" and a powerful gatekeeper within the former president's inner circle, a high-profile Russian-American attorney and political strategist who serves as a personal senior counsel to President. He has played a major role in the presidential transition, recommending candidates for high-level jobs, including the nomination of Attorney General.
Epshteyn’s power stems from his proximity to Donald Trump and his leadership of the President’s personal legal team. He has overseen the coordination of Trump’s various criminal and civil defense teams and has been instrumental in brokering deals between the Trump administration and major law firms for government work. But Boris is much more than a jurist, he is a strategist deeply knowledgeable about history, philosophy, economics, and war.
Epshteyn's Portuguese origin
Born in 1982 in Moscow, Boris Epshteyn immigrated to the U.S. in 1993 as a refugee. His family well portrays the multifaceted origins of the Jewish people. Following the expulsion of Jews from Sefarad five centuries ago, a branch of the Sephardic Benveniste family migrated to German-speaking lands. They were Levites (members of the tribe of Levi) and settled in or near Eppstein and adopted the town's name as their surname to integrate into the local Ashkenazic community. DNA studies have verified this link, showing the Epsteins share common ancestry with the Sephardic Benveniste and Horowitz lines.
Chabad Lubavitch
It is the most powerful Jewish religious organization in the world, extending its emissaries around the globe. Founded in the Russian city of Lubavitch, by a grandson of Rabbi Baruch Portugali, Chabad also shows the extraordinary heritage of ancient Portuguese Jewry over the centuries and still in the world today.
As the co-chair of the Jewish Voices for Trump advisory board, Epshteyn acts as a primary liaison between the Trump campaign and various Jewish communities, including the Orthodox and Hasidic sectors where Chabad is influential.
In October 2024, Boris Epshteyn accompanied Donald Trump on a visit to the Ohel, the resting place of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York, where they met with Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Executive Vice President of American Friends of Lubavitch-Chabad. Like many leaders within the Chabad movement, Epshteyn was born in Moscow and immigrated to the United States as a Jewish refugee.
