The Armenian Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Narek Mkrtchyan, announced on social media on Monday that he ‘had the honour of being hosted by US President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate’.
According to Mkrtchyan, he was invited by ‘the president’s longtime friends, Keith Schiller and George Sorial’ due to his position as head of foreign relations for the ruling Civil Contract Party.
Schiller served for many years as Trump’s personal assistant and head of security, while Sorial has held a number of executive positions within the Trump Organisation.
Mkrtchyan also shared on Facebook that while at Mar-a-Lago, he had a ‘pleasant conversation’ with Yehuda Kaploun, reportedly a Miami-based Chabad entrepreneur who has served as one of Trump’s close advisors.
Previously, in January 2025, Mkrtchyan attended an event dedicated to Trump’s inauguration, during which he ‘had the opportunity to communicate warmly with Marco Rubio, the future US Secretary of State, long-time friends of President Trump, Christopher Rudy, Patrick Orlando, and several other high-ranking officials and international guests’.
In recent months, Armenian officials, including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, have made attempts to court Trump, ostensibly seeking to maintain continuity while also building on existing institutional relations that developed under former US President Joe Biden.
In particular, during its last days in office, the Biden Administration signed a Strategic Partnership Charter with Armenia, which stressed a mutual desire to strengthen relations across the diplomatic, economic, energy, high-tech, educational, scientific, cultural, legal, defence, and security fields.
While Pashinyan claimed, following his visit to the US in February, that the new Trump Administration wished to continue deepening cooperation in the areas envisaged by the Strategic Partnership Charter, later that month several US projects and initiatives were halted in Armenia.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
