A Flurry of Announcements Signal That the Trump Family Will Keep Making Deals

President-elect Donald J. Trump addressed the upcoming inauguration of his second term from the podium, but across the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, an extraordinary blend of his family’s business interests and his presidential agenda was on full display.Trump

At the start of the unusual news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Trump introduced Hussain Sajwani, the founder and chairman of DAMAC Properties, a Dubai-based real estate firm. This company had partnered with the Trump family a decade ago to create the first Trump-branded golf course in the Middle East. Mr. Trump announced that DAMAC was planning to invest billions of dollars into the U.S. to build data centers, with the support of both the Trump family and the federal government, despite DAMAC’s ongoing role as a Trump business partner.https://wordpress.com/

Also present in the room was Steve Witkoff, involved in a new cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, a project that both Mr. Trump and his sons had helped launch. While still working with the crypto company, Mr. Witkoff is already serving as Mr. Trump’s envoy to the Middle East and provided an update on efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Eric Trump, one of Mr. Trump’s sons, who has been pushing for new Trump Tower projects in the Middle East, was in the back of the room. On the same day, LIV Golf, the Saudi-financed golf league, announced plans for another tournament this year at the Trump National Doral resort near Miami. This means that Saudi-backed funds will continue to flow into the Trump family’s coffers, even as Mr. Trump returns to the White House, as LIV Golf is owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

In another development on Tuesday, Trump Organization’s other major Middle Eastern business partner, Dar Al Arkan, revealed plans to begin construction projects in the United States, according to Reuters. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The timing coincides with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, revealing that he had raised an additional $1.5 billion from Middle Eastern investors for his private equity firm. The company Kushner founded after leaving the White House in 2020 now has over $4.5 billion, primarily sourced from oil-rich sovereign wealth funds.

“This will be the golden age of America — this is the golden age of America,” Mr. Trump said as he concluded his over-hour-long news conference, expressing confidence not in his family’s business ventures but in the nation’s future. “We’re going to have a great country again.”

The clear overlap between Mr. Trump’s family business interests and the government he will lead — all displayed on the same day — highlights how unprecedented the potential for conflicts of interest will be during his second presidency.

“There was some concern during his first term about the optics of intertwining Trump’s businesses and the government,” said Adav Noti, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit ethics group. “But what we are seeing now with the incoming administration shows that those concerns are no longer present. It seems the handcuffs are off.”

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, rejected this criticism, stating that President Trump’s family members are highly respected individuals who have always played an integral role in his campaigns and administration, making significant personal sacrifices to help their father’s vision of making America great again. She also pointed to Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, who reportedly secured millions in contracts while his father was vice president from overseas business executives.

The Trump family has made it clear since the election that it will not follow the same course as in 2017, when they pledged to refrain from new international deals. Eric Trump emphasized in an interview with The New York Times last month that new global ventures would continue to be announced. The family plans to release an ethics plan that includes hiring an external legal advisor to review deals, aiming to avoid special treatment from companies seeking favors from the U.S. government. However, they have said no new deals will be made directly with foreign governments while Mr. Trump is president.

But the pace of new deals has picked up in recent months as Mr. Trump prepares to take office again.

Dar Al Arkan, a Saudi real estate firm, announced since last year that it plans to build new Trump-branded towers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, in addition to a planned project in Oman. Dar Al Arkan and its Dar Global subsidiary have close ties to the Saudi government.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner revealed in a podcast that he had secured $1.5 billion in new funding from sovereign wealth funds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and extended the investment commitment from Saudi Arabia, which had previously pledged $2 billion, to 2029.

Kushner emphasized that this arrangement avoids conflicts of interest, stating that he had made it clear to the investors that they should not expect any favors from him in the event of Trump’s re-election.

Kushner’s firm declined to comment on the matter on Tuesday. To date, Affinity Partners, Kushner’s firm, has invested about $2 billion, including $129 million into Phoenix Holdings, an Israeli financial services firm whose stock has surged since the investment.

The centerpiece of the Trump family’s announcement on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago involved DAMAC, which Mr. Trump said planned to invest $20 billion in the U.S. “over a very short period of time.” This investment would focus on building data centers to meet the growing demand from cloud computing and artificial intelligence industries.

“We’re very, very excited, now with his leadership and his open strategy and policy to encourage businesses to come to the U.S.,” said Mr. Sajwani, after being invited to the stage by Mr. Trump. “For the last four years, we’ve been waiting for this moment.”

DAMAC and the Trump Organization are already partners in Dubai, where they built the first golf course and are planning a second, though the project has been delayed. In the U.S., Mr. Trump said he would use the federal government’s power to expedite environmental reviews for DAMAC’s plans.

“We’re going to move them quickly through the environmental process,” Mr. Trump said, offering the same expedited treatment to any company investing $1 billion in the U.S., with DAMAC being the first to receive such a promise.

The intertwining of the Trump family’s business ventures and government positions attracts significant attention, regardless of whether they involve the Trump Organization. For instance, three incoming government officials posted photos on social media of themselves traveling with Donald Trump Jr., a prominent political figure with his father, to Greenland, which Mr. Trump has expressed interest in acquiring for strategic reasons. Although Donald Trump Jr. is not joining his father’s government, this still generated interest given the context of the trip.

But the LIV Golf announcement on Tuesday ensures the Saudi-backed tournament will return to Mr. Trump’s Doral resort in April, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for the venue. The event also draws thousands of ticket-buying fans, filling hotel rooms and restaurants during the multi-day competition. LIV Golf events further elevate the international profile of the Trump family’s golf resorts worldwide.

“What they’re doing with LIV is very important,” Mr. Trump remarked at the 2022 competition at Doral, which will have hosted four LIV events by the end of this year. “They’re putting a lot of effort into it and a lot of money into it, as you see.”