Trump picks Metro Detroit cannabis businessman as special envoy to Iraq

By Melissa Nann Burke, MediaNews Group

President Donald Trump stated Sunday he has chosen Metro Detroit marijuana businessman Mark Savaya as his particular envoy to Iraq.

Savaya owns Leaf and Bud, an area chain of medical and leisure marijuana shops.

“Mark’s deep understanding of the Iraq-US relationship, and his connections within the area, will assist advance the pursuits of the American individuals,” Trump posted on social media on Sunday.

“Mark was a key participant in my marketing campaign in Michigan, the place he and others helped safe a file vote amongst Muslim People. Congratulations, Mark!”

Savaya responded on social media and thanked the president for his alternative.

“I’m deeply humbled, honored and grateful to President Donald J. Trump for appointing me Particular Envoy to the Republic of Iraq,” he wrote. “I’m dedicated to strengthening the US-Iraq partnership beneath President Trump’s management.”

Motorists in Metro Detroit could acknowledge Savaya’s face smiling from billboards promoting his marijuana dispensaries alongside space roadways and on the aspect of a constructing alongside Lafayette Boulevard.

Voters within the state accepted leisure gross sales of hashish in 2018, and medical use was legalized a decade earlier. It stays unlawful beneath federal legislation.

Savaya’s Leaf and Bud chain has three marijuana shops in Heart Line, Hazel Park and on Livernois on Detroit’s west aspect.

Savaya was reportedly born in Iraq and is a part of Metro Detroit’s Chaldean-American enterprise neighborhood.

Initially printed: October 20, 2025 at 12:02 PM EDT