Trump's family is rapidly striking business deals in the Mideast
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the three countries on the president's itinerary, stand out for their warm embrace of Trump Inc.
In the past year, Trump-branded residential towers have been launched in Dubai and Jeddah, and a developer in April unveiled a Trump luxury golf resort at a state-owned project in Qatar at an event featuring Eric Trump and a Qatari minister.
A U.A.E. state and royal family fund earlier this month used $2 billion of a new crypto stablecoin issued by Trump's World Liberty Financial to invest in a crypto exchange. The Trump administration is in talks with the Qatari government about accepting a plane that would serve as a temporary replacement for the U.S.'s aging Air Force One jets—and later be donated to President Trump's library for his use, people familiar with the matter have said.
Sovereign or royal funds from all three states have committed more than $3.5 billion to a private-equity fund run by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law.
In addition, state-backed funds from Qatar and the U.A.E. were major investors in a $6 billion fundraising round for Trump adviser Elon Musk's xAI. In February, Dubai tapped his Boring Company to build an 11-mile tunnel network.
This open co-mingling of geopolitics and personal interest breaks with longstanding American norms.
'The national interest has seemingly merged with the president's interests in some ways," said David Schenker, who was the State Department's top Middle East official during Trump's first term. 'It's obviously a different way of doing business, unprecedented for the United States."
Scheckner, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said dealmaking in the Gulf, including with the president's family and associates, is part of a new strategic approach on the part of these countries. 'They're all thinking about this," he said.
Ahead of the foreign trip, Trump's first other than his Italian visit for Pope Francis' funeral, his administration has sought to broker a peace agreement in Gaza, cut a new nuclear deal with Iran and halt attacks by Yemen's Houthis on Red Sea shipping—all matters of importance to the Arab states on the Gulf.
At the same time, Trump's team has been in talks with Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Qatar on defense, artificial intelligence and other deals they desire in exchange for pledges of a wave of Gulf investment in the U.S.
Saudi Arabia has committed a $600 billion package, and the U.A.E. has pledged to inject $1.4 trillion into the U.S. over the next decade. The administration is looking to announce major Gulf investments this week toward U.S. companies and projects, according to people familiar with the matter.
It wasn't clear whether the administration would agree to tariff relief for Gulf states in exchange for investments. The three countries are currently subject to Trump's global 10% tariff, which he has insisted is the baseline for all nations. Trump said Friday there were four or five trade deals coming soon.
The fusion of the policy talks and deals that benefit the president's family and advisers have drawn criticism from Democrats and government accountability groups over the conflicts of interest.
Sovereign or royal funds from Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Qatar have committed more than $3.5 billion to a private-equity fund run by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Friday it was 'ridiculous" to suggest 'that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit," and he was re-elected because Americans trust 'he acts in the best interest of our country."
In Trump's first term, his Trump Organization vowed not to do foreign deals. This time, it has limited the vow to transactions directly with foreign governments. The Trump-owned company is managed by his children. The president's ethics plan calls for the company to give any profits from what it calls 'foreign government patronage" at its hotels and similar business to the U.S. government, as it did in his first term. Congressional Democrats criticized these payments as only representing a small portion of the total financial benefits his companies received from foreign governments.
It is unclear what limits, if any, there are on deals by World Liberty Financial. The cryptocurrency company, which has sold Trump memecoin tokens, is controlled by an entity with Trump family ownership. Eric Trump sits on that entity's board. The president is described on World Liberty's website as its 'Chief Crypto Advocate" in its section on its 'Team."
MGX, a fund run by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of the U.A.E. president, used $2 billion of World Liberty's new stablecoin—a cryptocurrency that tracks the U.S. dollar—in order to invest in cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
So long as those stablecoins are in circulation, it could mean tens of millions of dollars in profits a year for World Liberty. That is because stablecoin issuers such as World Liberty typically take the money from buyers and put it into Treasurys or other investments, profiting on the interest. Meanwhile, the stablecoin holders typically get no interest.
A World Liberty spokesman said it is 'a private company, not a political organization," and it was 'proud that an investor as sophisticated as MGX" would use the stablecoin.
Among the Gulf states, the U.A.E. has done a particularly large number of Trump-tied deals.
Eric Trump recently praised the rapid pace of government approval for the Trump-branded tower in Dubai—it took less than a month, he said—while a fund run by Sheikh Tahnoon joined with Qatar to pump another $1.5 billion into Kushner's private-equity fund, Affinity Partners, before the election.
Musk's family has also done business in the country: a U.A.E. ministry in March announced a multiyear partnership with his brother Kimball Musk's drone light show company.
Kushner has said he told his investors they shouldn't expect anything in return if Trump won the election.
Until recently, the Trump Organization had little presence in the region—most notably a single golf resort in Dubai. But over the past year, private developer Dar Global announced the towers in Dubai and Jeddah, the golf resort at a larger Qatari government-owned project and another hotel and golf complex in Oman, which is hosting nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran. More projects are afoot: Eric Trump has said the company is planning a tower in Riyadh and possibly a project in Abu Dhabi.
Eric Trump launched the project last month at an event with a Qatari minister and other officials from the state-owned developer Qatari Diar. A Trump Organization spokeswoman said the company's Qatar agreement was with Dar Global, not Qatari Diar. A Qatari official said the agreement to develop the golf resort was initially struck before Trump's election.
Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Qatar—all hereditary monarchies funded by tremendous endowments of oil and gas—have a more lenient approach to the mixing of government and commerce.
'The line between politics and business is very fuzzy, so there are a lot of overlapping activities and engagements and interests," said Robert Mogielnicki, resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, a Washington think tank.
What's different now is that such potential conflicts of interest involving the president and his associates no longer seem to be a major concern in Washington.
'President Trump could do more to insulate his political and diplomatic dealings from commercial interests, but there just doesn't seem to be the political pressure," Mogielnicki said.
For their part, says Hasan Alhassan, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Gulf states are happy to play ball with Trump to gain political influence in Washington, whether by helping boost his domestic economic agenda with U.S. investment pledges or appealing to the president's own business concerns.
'They have a limited number of tools with which to shape the president's views and policies on issues that matter to them most," he said. 'Some of that tool kit has to do with catering to his personal and family business interests."
Negotiations have already borne fruit: The Treasury Department on Thursday announced a plan to streamline U.S. investment rules for 'ally and partner sources," a measure long pushed by the U.A.E.
Trump, who broke with tradition in 2017 by making Saudi Arabia his first foreign trip as president, has maintained close ties with Gulf leaders. He met Qatar's ruling emir at Mar-a-Lago in September and hosted Sheikh Tahnoon, the U.A.E.'s national security adviser, at the White House in March. Saudi Arabia's defense minister, a brother of the crown prince, visited the Pentagon in February.
Write to Eliot Brown at Eliot.Brown@wsj.com and Stephen Kalin at stephen.kalin@wsj.com
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