The Trump Organization struck a deal Wednesday to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar. “We are incredibly proud to expand the Trump brand into Qatar through this exceptional collaboration with Qatari Diar and Dar Global,” a spokesperson for the family business said.
Trump International Golf Club Simaisma will feature Trump-branded beachside villas and an 18-hole golf course and will be Trump's first real-estate venture in Qatar since the president returned to the White House.
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Trump Organization announces a deal to build a Gulf Club in Qatar
(Photo: Qatari Diar)
In addition to a Saudi Arabian partner, called Dar Global, the planned resort north of the Qatari capital of Doha will be developed by a Qatari company called Qatari Diar, which is owned by the Qatari government.
After U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would be visiting Qatar during his upcoming Middle East Trip, some observers wondered why he chose to stop at the Gulf country while ignoring American allies such as Israel, Egypt and Turkey.
The deal in Qatar was announced while the president was going after Qatari funding of Ivy League universities in the United States, which allowed antisemitism and anti-Israel protests to take place on their campuses after the Hamas massacre of October 7 and the ensuing war.
It is unlikely to be the last of its kind. It follows several other deals made before Trump was sworn in, including one for a golf resort in Vietnam late last year with a firm with ties to the Communist Party. The deals have drawn outrage from government watchdogs but mostly silence from Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress.
When asked for clarification, the Trump Organization said its deal was with the Saudi firm, not the Qatari one, though Trump’s son Eric, who is in charge of the business, mentioned both companies in an earlier statement.
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Despite Trump’s pledge in his first term not to make moves that would appear to conflict with his personal financial holdings and business, he ended up opening the doors to all sorts of potential pay-to-play deals. His hotel, down the street from the White House, hosted scores of corporate lobbyists, CEOs, members of Congress and diplomats. Trump once suggested holding a G7 meeting of global leaders at Doral before he backed down after an outcry over ethics concerns.
Several lawsuits were filed against the first Trump administration, alleging it violated the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bans a president from accepting gifts or payments from foreign or domestic governments. One case was appealed to the Supreme Court but was never heard because Trump had already left the presidency at that point and the issue was moot.
This time, the hotel is gone, sold to a Miami investment firm, but other sources of potential conflicts of interest have emerged.
The Trump Organization also owns much of the publicly traded parent company of social media platform Truth Social, which allows Trump to financially benefit from traffic to the site where his postings as U.S. president are widely followed. The family also has a stake in a cybercurrency trading platform called World Liberty Financial as Trump has pushed for less regulatory oversight on cybercurrencies.
First published: 11:16, 05.01.25