Trump Business Ties in Middle 05/14 06:41

   Some are worried deals that show the close ties between the Trump family and 
a region whose leaders are fond of currying favor through money and lavish 
gifts could cause the United States to show preferential treatment to Middle 
Eastern leaders when it comes to American affairs of state.


   WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's not just the "gesture" of a $400 million luxury 
plane that President Donald Trump says he's smart to accept from Qatar. Or that 
he effectively auctioned off the first destination on his first major foreign 
trip, heading to Saudi Arabia because the kingdom was ready to make big 
investments in U.S. companies.

   It's not even that the Trump family has fast-growing business ties in the 
Middle East, ones that run deep and offer the potential of vast profits.

   week's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, his 
Instead, it's the idea that the combination of these things and more -- deals 
that show the close ties between a family whose patriarch oversees the U.S. 
government and a region whose leaders are fond of currying favor through money 
and lavish gifts -- could cause the United States to show preferential 
treatment to Middle Eastern leaders when it comes to American affairs of state.

   Before Trump began this sons Eric and Donald Jr. had already traveled the 
Middle East extensively in recent weeks. They were drumming up business for The 
Trump Organization, which they are running in their father's stead while he's 
in the White House.

   Their travels included Eric Trump announcing plans for a glitzy, 80-story 
Trump Tower in Dubai, the UAE's largest city. He also attended a recent 
cryptocurrency conference there with Zach Witkoff, a founder of the Trump 
family crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, and son of Trump's do-everything 
envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.

   "We are proud to expand our presence in the region," Eric Trump said last 
month in announcing that Trump Tower Dubai was set to start construction this 
fall.

   The presidential visit to the region as his children work the same part of 
the world for the family's money-making opportunities puts a spotlight on 
Trump's willingness to embrace foreign dealmaking as president --- even in the 
face of mounting concerns that doing so could tempt him to shape U.S. foreign 
policy in ways that benefit his family's bottom line.

   Nowhere is the potential overlap more prevalent than in the Middle East

   The Trump family's business interests in the region include a new deal to 
build a luxury golf resort in Qatar, partnering with Qatari Diar, a real estate 
company backed by that country's sovereign wealth fund. The family is also 
leasing its brand to two new real estate projects in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's 
capital, in partnership with Dar Global, a London-based luxury real estate 
developer and subsidiary of private Saudi real estate firm Al Arkan.

   The Trump Organization has similarly partnered with Dar Global on a Trump 
Tower set to be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and an upcoming Trump 
International Hotel and luxury golf development in neighboring Oman.

   During the crypto conference, meanwhile, a state-backed investment company 
in Abu Dhabi announced it had chosen USD, World Liberty Financial's stablecoin, 
to back a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency 
exchange. Critics say that allows Trump family-aligned interests to essentially 
take a cut of each dollar invested.

   Then there's the Saudi government-backed LIV Golf, which has forged close 
business relationships with the president and hosted tournaments at Trump's 
Doral resort in South Florida.

   "Given the extensive ties between LIV Golf and the PIF, or between Trump 
enterprises more generally and the Gulf, I'd say there's a pretty glaring 
conflict of interest here," said Jon Hoffman, a research fellow in defense and 
foreign policy at the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. He was 
referring to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which has invested heavily 
in everything from global sports giants to video game maker Nintendo with the 
aim of diversifying the kingdom's economy beyond oil.

   Trump further announced in January a $20 billion investment for U.S. data 
centers promised by DAMAC Properties, an Emirati company led by billionaire 
Dubai developer Hussain Sajwani. Trump bills that as benefiting the country's 
technological and economic standing rather than his family business. But 
Sajwani was a close business partner of Trump and his family since long before 
the 2016 election.

   White House bristles at conflict of interest concerns

   Asked before he left for the Middle East if Trump might use the trip to meet 
with people tied to his family's business, White House press secretary Karoline 
Leavitt said it was "ridiculous" to "suggest that President Trump is doing 
anything for his own benefit."

   "The president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws," she said.

   Administration officials have similarly brushed off such concerns about the 
president's policy decisions bleeding into the business interests of his family 
by noting that Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children. A 
voluntary ethics agreement released by the Trump Organization also bars the 
firm from striking deals directly with foreign governments.

   But that same agreement still allows deals with private companies abroad -- 
a key departure from Trump's first term, when the organization released an 
ethics pact prohibiting deals with both foreign governments and foreign 
companies.

   The president, according to the second-term ethics agreement, isn't involved 
in any day-to-day decision-making for the family business. But his political 
and corporate brands remain inextricably linked.

   "The president is a successful businessman," Leavitt said, "and I think, 
frankly, that it's one of the many reasons that people reelected him back to 
this office."

   Timothy P. Carney, senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise 
Institute, said he doesn't want to see U.S. foreign policy being affected by 
Trump's feelings about how other countries have treated his family's business.

   "Even if he's not running the company, he profits when the company does 
well," Carney said. "When he leaves the White House, the company is worth more, 
his personal wealth goes up."

   Promises of US investment shaped Trump's trip

   His family business aside, the president wasn't shy about saying he'd shape 
the itinerary of his first extended overseas trip on quid pro quo.

   Trump's first stop on this week's trip was Saudi Arabia, just as during his 
first term. He picked the destination after he said the kingdom had pledged to 
spend $1 trillion on U.S. companies over four years. The White House has since 
announced that the actual figure is $600 billion, and how much of that will 
actually be new investment -- or come to fruition -- remains to be seen.

   The president is also stopping in the United Arab Emirates, which has 
pledged $1.4 trillion in U.S. investments over the next 10 years, and in Qatar, 
where Trump says accepting the gift of a Boeing 747 from the ruling family is a 
no-brainer, dismissing security and ethical concerns raised by Democrats and 
even some conservatives.

   Trump's Middle East business ties predate his presidencies

   Trump's first commercial foray in the Middle East came in 2005, during just 
his second year of starring on "The Apprentice." A Trump Tower Dubai project 
was envisioned as a tulip-shaped hotel to be perched on the city's manmade 
island shaped like a palm tree.

   It never materialized.

   Instead, February 2017 saw the announced opening of Trump International Golf 
Club Dubai, with Sajwani's DAMAC Properties. Just a month earlier, Trump had 
said that Sajwani had tried to make a $2 billion deal with him, "And I turned 
it down."

   "I didn't have to turn it down, because as you know, I have a no-conflict 
situation because I'm president," Trump said then.

   This January, there was a beaming Sajwani standing triumphantly by Trump's 
side at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, to announce DAMAC's investment in 
U.S. data centers.

   "It's been amazing news for me and my family when he was elected in 
November," Sajwani said. "For the last four years, we've been waiting for this 
moment."