Conflict? Trump Inked $4 Billion With Saudi Real Estate Company as He Launches 2024 Campaign, Per Report
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A new report delves into a business deal Donald Trump reached with a Saudi Arabian real estate company, and whether his entanglement with Middle Eastern governments presents a conflict of interest as he runs for president again.
The New York Times report on Monday focuses on the $4 billion deal Trump signed last week to forge a partnership between his business empire and the Saudi-based Dar Al Arkan. The deal is for the construction of a Trump-branded hotel and golf course that Dar Al Arkan intends to build with land and financial backing from the government of Oman.
The Times notes that Trump’s involvement with a project supported by a foreign government raises conflict of interest questions now that the former president has established his plans to run for the White House again. Selling branding rights to foreign projects in exchange for a licensing fee is a common practice for Trump’s business empire. However, the project’s level of direct involvement from a foreign government points to a new depth for the tendency of Trump and his family to intertwine business and politics.
From the report:
During Mr. Trump’s time in the White House, the Trump International Hotel in Washington was frequently a destination for foreign government officials, including delegations in town for planned meetings with Mr. Trump. The governments of Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China each spent money at the hotel, according to documents that his former accounting firm turned over to Congress. The hotel received more than $3.75 million from foreign governments from 2017 to 2020, the House investigators estimated.
The Trump Organization has asserted that it paid all profits from these hotel stays to the Treasury Department through annual voluntary payments.
But this new deal — in which the Trump Organization benefits from land or financial capital provided by foreign governments — only elevates the potential for a conflict of interest to emerge, as Mr. Trump continues his dual roles as a White House candidate and business executive, ethics lawyers said.
The report notes that Trump has seen lucrative deals with Middle East governments since his departure from office. One example is that the Trump Organization partnered with the Saudi-government-backed LIV Golf tournaments by hosting tournaments at Trump’s properties in Miami and New Jersey. For Trump’s family, Jared Kushner has maintained his close ties with the Saudi government, as evidenced by how he secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund for his private equity firm after leaving the White House.
Trump’s son Eric denied the notion that the Oman deal represents a conflict of interest, telling the Times, “We are excited to expand our golf and hotel portfolio in this incredible location. It is going to be an exceptional project.”
