Trump's excursion in the Middle East not just about diplomacy. It's about the family business Mohamad Bazzi

OIn his first day in the White House, reporter Donald Trump asked where he could go overseas on his virgin. The US President saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate and explain his skills how he would convince Saudi Arabia to give billions from dollars to the US economy.

While US presidents often visit Canada, Mexico or Great Britain as the first foreign goal, Trump opened this tradition when he traveled to Saudi Arabia in May 2017. “The last time I did it with Saudi Arabia because they agreed to buy our products worth $ 450 billion,” he said. “If Saudi -Arabia wanted to buy another 450 billion or 500 US dollars – we will improve it for the whole inflation – I think I would probably go.”

Days later, on January 23, Saudi -Arabiens de -Facto -Facto -Herrer and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman with an even more lucrative offer: he would invest $ 600 billion in the US economy over the next four years.

The Saudi guide's comments were quickly forgotten what Trump announced in his early office. But Trump had made it clear that his first state visit to the highest bidder was available for sale. And while he claims that he is most interested in guaranteeing economic transactions that would benefit the Americans, he also uses this journey to support his relationship with regional autocrats and to turn business for his own family.

How he decided in 2017 to make Saudi Arabia the first stop of his state visit in the Middle East. After his arrival in the kingdom on Tuesday, he will go to two neighboring golf countries: Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. (Trump Made A letter forign trip to the Vatican Last Month for Pope Francis's Funeral, but that not a choreographer state visit by a us president.) It's Clear Why the Gulf Arab States – With their vast Riches From Oil and Gas Exports, and sovereign to make investments – would be more attractive to trump Than us Neighbors search as canada and mexico, or traditional allies search as the uk.

During his first term, Trump inflated the role of his government when securing economic agreements with Saudi Arabia, including a parcel of $ 110 billion in weapons sales, which he had announced with great fanfare during his visit eight years ago. However, many of these agreements were temporarily and part of the military equipment that the Saudis wanted to buy had already been negotiated by the government of Barack Obama.

While the real value of Saudi Arabia and other investments by the Arab states in the US economy remain fatigue, their business with Trump's family businesses and its foreign partners are far more tangible. The President will visit three countries in which all Trump brand real estate or ongoing real estate developments, hotels and golf resorts worth billions of dollars worth billion dollars. He will be able to make decisions with foreign leaders who can make decisions that the Trump organization projects and relationships with Arabic governments of Golf or their sovereign assets can influence that could represent an enormous financial conflict of interest for Trump.

Here you will find a summary of large offers and projects in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in which Trump's family businesses are involved:

Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, the Trump organization Branding deals signed for two real estate projects, including a Trump tower in Riad, the capital and another residential tower of 530 million US dollars in the coastal city of Jeddah. The shops that were elected to a second term one month after the election of Trump did not have to require Trump's company to contribute to the construction of the towers, but they will earn millions of dollars of license fees. The projects are led by Dar Global, a subsidiary of Dar Al Arkan, one of the largest real estate developers in Saudi Arabia. The company is privately owned, but depends on the Saudi government of Saudi and the favor of Prince Mohammed, especially when he pursues an ambitious development plan called Vision 2030 to diversify the Saudi economy away from the oil.

In recent years, Trump's family business has also relied on the LIV Golf League, which is financed by Saudi Arabia's sovereigns. After Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in January 2021, Trump companies lost a number of real estate and golf sponsoring deals. But Saudi leaders who were held on Trump and agreed to stop the LIV professional golf tour on several of his US golf courses in order to achieve millions of dollars while he was not in office.

Qatar

In Qatar, the Trump organization announced a new golf resort last month and real estate development, which Dar Global built together with a government developer in Qatar. The project called Trump International Golf Club & Villas will include an 18-hole golf course, a clubhouse and a Trump brand villa on the beach from the capital of Qatari, Doha. Qatar is a long -time US allies and houses the largest US military base in the Middle East. This is another branding deal for the Trump family company, in which it does not create a capital, but earns more than millions of dollars of branding and management fees as soon as the golf resort is in operation.

The participation of Qatar Diagramm, a real estate fund founded by the sovereign asset fund in 2005, has new concerns in the Trump organization project with regard to the violation of the U.S. Constitution abroad -his plan to accept a luxury jet of $ 400 million from the royal family in Qatar, despite the royal family. This provision prohibits the president, payments or significant gifts from foreign governments or leaders without the consent of the congress. During his first term, Trump's business of 20 foreign governments received $ 7.8 million, according to a Democrat report in the Congress last year. However, the state watchdog groups estimated that such payments reached USD 13.6 million – and alarms that Trump could far exceed these amounts in his second term, since the family businesses operated by his two sons complete more foreign business such as those with Golf Arab states.

United Arab Emirates

In the United Arab Emirates, the Trump organization already operates the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai, which was opened in 2017 during the first term of the president. The project is part of a long-term partnership between Trump and Hussain Sajwani, an Emirati billionaire and founder of Damac Properties, a developer based in Dubai. Damac was supposed to build a second golf resort with a Trump brand in Dubai, but this project was affected by delays.

But the company of the Trump family is progressing with other projects in the United Arab Emirates, including 1 billion USD, an 80-story Trump International Hotel and Tower, which is built by Dar Global, the real estate developer of Saudi ownership. Apartments in the unfinished luxury tower – to which the developer “The Highest Outdoor Pool in the World” and the Burj Khalifa of Dubai, the highest skyscraper in the world – are already selling up to 20 million US dollars.

And the Trump family's shops with Golf Arabian autocrats go beyond real estate transactions and golf tournaments. On May 1, Eric Trump, the Middle Son of the President, who operates the Trump organization, and a business partner, Zach Witkoff (who is also the son of Steve Witkoff, the special representative of the President in the Middle East) revealed a large new cryptocurrency deal with a venture find that from the government of Abu Dhabi, the Richest -Mirate in the venirates, in the venirates in the venires. The fund would invest 2 billion USD with a form of digital currency offered by World Liberty Financial, Trump's family crypto business.

Such a transaction could generate hundreds of millions of dollars for Trump and his family – in a financial deal that is associated with a foreign government and a long -standing US ally.

Is it a surprise that Trump wants to use the first big trip abroad of his second term to reward executives whose countries make great investments that ultimately benefit his family business? With little consistency, other foreign leaders are striving to take part in Trump's corrupt politics.

• Mohamad Bazzi is the director of the Hagop Keprevian Center for Near Eastern Studies and Journalism Professor at New York University