Trump Tower is coming to Saudi Arabia
By Matt Egan, CNN
New York (CNN) — The Trump Organization revealed plans Monday to develop a luxury Trump Tower in Saudi Arabia.
The new tower will be built in Jeddah and developed in tandem with Dar Global, the international arm of Saudi mega-developer Dar Al Arkan.
If completed, it appears the Jeddah tower would be the Trump Organization’s first major project in Saudi Arabia.
“We are thrilled to expand our footprint in the Middle East and bring the Trump standard of luxury to the region through our long-standing relationship with Dar Global,” Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of former president Donald Trump, said in the announcement.
Dar Global said the project will target the “luxury Saudi Arabian market and international investors.”
The new project in Saudi Arabia comes just days after the Trump Organization and Dar Global unveiled a $500 million Trump International hotel complex in Oman.
That five-star hotel complex, set to open in December 2028, would include a nightclub, golf course and members-only club. Dar Al Arkan has agreed to use the Trump name and logo under license for that hotel, which is not owned by the Trump Organization.
The Trump Organization’s new projects in the Middle East could raise concerns about potential conflicts of interest should former President Donald Trump return to the White House.
“The Trump Organization’s continued pursuit of foreign business projects raises perilous national security, corruption and constitutional concerns,” Donald K. Sherman, senior vice president and chief counsel at the Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW), told CNN in a statement.
“This is particularly true of their development in Saudi Arabia, whose government has a long history of apparently seeking to influence Donald Trump,” Sherman added. “If Trump were to return to the presidency, he would likely violate the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, as he did repeatedly in his first term in office.”
A 2023 analysis by CREW found that Trump made at least $9.6 million from countries in the Middle East during his presidency.
The Trump Organization is owned by a private trust that lists the former president as the sole beneficiary. The family business is run by his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
Last year, the Trump Organization was fined $1.6 million by a New York judge for running a decade-long tax fraud scheme. Two Trump entities were convicted of 17 felonies, including tax fraud and falsifying business records.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The investment firm run by Jared Kushner, the former president’s son-in-law who helped advise on foreign policy during the Trump administration, reportedly secured a $2 billion investment from the Saudi royal fund.
Last month, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, launched an investigation into Kushner’s firm and its ties to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern governments. Wyden expressed concern that the investments in Kushner’s firm could create “significant conflicts of interest and potential counterintelligence risks.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Lauren del Valle contributed to this report.
