Trump’s Middle East visit comes as his family deepens its business, crypto ties in the region

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON AP It s not just the gesture of a 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 that run deep and offer the feasible of vast profits President Donald Trump and His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman al Saud Crown Prince and Prime Minister Kingdom of Saudi Arabia tour the Diriyah At-Turaif UNESCO World Heritage Site Tuesday May in Riyadh Saudi Arabia AP Photo Alex Brandon 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 governing body and a region whose leaders are fond of currying favor through money and lavish gifts could cause the United States to show preferential recovery to Middle Eastern leaders when it comes to American affairs of state Before Trump began his visit to Saudi Arabia Qatar and the United Arab Emirates his sons Eric and Donald Jr had already traveled the Middle East extensively in contemporary 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 Eric Trump released plans for an -story Trump Tower in Dubai the UAE s largest city He also attended a new cryptocurrency conference there with Zach Witkoff a founder of the Trump family crypto company World Liberty Financial and son of Trump s do-everything envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff We are proud to expand our presence in the region Eric Trump noted 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 moneymaking opportunities puts a spotlight on Trump s willingness to embrace foreign dealmaking while in the White House even in the face of growing concerns that doing so could tempt him to shape U S foreign approach in options that benefit his family s bottom line Nowhere is the prospective 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 expansion in neighboring Oman During the crypto conference a state-backed stake company in Abu Dhabi stated it had chosen USD World Liberty Financial s stablecoin to back a billion outlay 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 I don t know anything about it Trump explained when sought by reporters about the transaction on Wednesday President Donald Trump speaks at the Saudi-U S Financing Forum at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh Saudi Arabia Tuesday May AP Photo Alex Brandon 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 declared Jon Hoffman a research fellow in defense and foreign initiative at the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute He was referring to Saudi Arabia s Society Outlay Fund which has invested heavily in everything from global sports giants to video contest maker Nintendo with the aim of diversifying the kingdom s financial system beyond oil Trump revealed he did not talk about LIV Golf during his visit in Saudi Arabia The president communicated in January a billion assets for U S information 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 polling White House bristles at conflict of interest concerns Urged 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 stated 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 noted Related Articles What to expect at RFK Jr s first Senate hearing as wellness secretary House works into the night as Republicans push ahead on Trump s big bill Trump tells Gulf leaders Iran must cease assistance of proxy groups as part of any nuclear deal Trump meets with Syria s insurgent-turned-leader in Saudi Arabia Editorial Drug supply chain a national-security concern Administration personnel have brushed off such concerns about the president s protocol 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 published 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 In Trump s first term the organization issued 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 triumphant businessman Leavitt stated and I think frankly that it s one of the countless reasons that people reelected him back to this office Timothy P Carney senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute commented he doesn t want to see U S foreign strategy 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 noted When he leaves the White House the company is worth more his personal wealth goes up Promises of US outlay 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 was Saudi Arabia just as during his first term He picked the destination after he commented the kingdom had pledged to spend trillion on U S companies over four years The White House has since revealed that the actual figure is billion How much of that will in fact be new capital or come to fruition remains to be seen The president is also stopping in the UAE which has pledged trillion in U S investments over the next years and in Qatar where Trump says accepting the gift of a Boeing from the ruling family is a no-brainer dismissing safeguard and ethical concerns raised by Democrats and even several conservatives Trump s Middle East business ties predate his presidencies Trump s first commercial foray in the Middle East came in 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 saw the declared opening of Trump International Golf Club Dubai with Sajwani s DAMAC Properties Just a month earlier Trump had noted that Sajwani had tried to make a 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 declared then This January there was a beaming Sajwani standing triumphantly by Trump s side at Trump s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to announce DAMAC s financing in U S material centers It s been amazing news for me and my family when he was elected in November Sajwani commented For the last four years we ve been waiting for this moment