Trump blurs lines in $20 billion data center announcement and other deals

President-elect Donald J. Trump was on stage speaking during his approaching inauguration for his second term. But across the hall at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, there was a display of the extraordinary way in which his family’s business interests are so thoroughly intertwined with his plans to rule the United States.

Mr. Trump opened the unusual press conference on Tuesday by introducing Hussain Sajwani, the founder and chairman of Damac Properties, a Dubai-based real estate company that partnered with the Trump family a decade ago to build the first Trump-branded golf course in the United States. The Middle East.

Now, Mr. Trump said, Damac plans to invest billions of dollars in the United States to build data centers, with the help of Mr. Trump and the federal government, even as Damac continues its role as Trump’s business partner.

Also in the room at Mar-a-Lago was Steve Witkoff, who works with a new cryptocurrency company called World Liberty Financial that Mr. Trump and his sons helped get started. Mr. Witkoff, while still with the cryptocurrency company, is already serving as Mr. Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, and Mr. Witkoff provided an update from the stage on efforts to release Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

Mr. Trump noted that one of his sons, Eric Trump, who has been pushing for new Trump Towers deals in the Middle East, was at the back of the room as well, on the same day that LIV Golf, which is funded by Saudi Arabia, opened. The US Golf Association revealed that it intends to host another tournament this year at the Trump National Doral resort near Miami. This means that money linked to the Saudi government will continue to flow to the Trump family, even when Mr Trump returns to the White House, as LIV Golf is owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

Also on Tuesday, Dar Al Arkan, the Trump Organization’s other major business partner in the Middle East, revealed that it plans to start building projects in the United States for the first time, according to the British Daily Mail. Reuters report. Dar Al Arkan did not respond to a request for comment.

It all comes as Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, recently revealed that he had raised an additional $1.5 billion from investors in the Middle East for his private equity firm. The company he started after leaving the White House in 2020 now has more than $4.5 billion, most of it from oil-rich sovereign wealth funds.

“This will be the golden age of America,” Mr. Trump said as he concluded his news conference that lasted more than an hour. He was not referring to his family business operations, but rather to his confidence in the company. Future Path of the Nation “We will have a great country again.”

The amount of overlap between Trump’s family members, their business interests, and the government he will lead, all on display on the same day, highlights how unprecedented a second Trump presidency is and the potential for conflicts of interest.

“There was at least some concern on the part of the Trump administration during the first term about the optics of financial intermingling between Trump companies and the government,” said Adav Notti, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit ethics group. “What we’re seeing with the next administration is no longer that kind of concern about those optics. “There is an impression that the handcuffs have been removed.”

Carolyn Levitt, Trump’s spokeswoman, rejected the criticism.

“President Trump’s family members are deeply respected, intelligent individuals who love our country,” she said in a statement. “They have always played an integral role in the campaigns of President Trump and his first administration and made many personal sacrifices to help their father make America great again.”

Ms. Leavitt also pointed to Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, who secured it It is worth millions of dollars of contracts while his father was vice president of overseas business managers.

Eric Trump said in an interview with The New York Times that the Trump family has made clear since the election that they do not intend to abandon new international deals as they did in 2017, which means they will continue to announce new projects in places around the world. last month.

The family still plans to announce an ethics plan that includes hiring outside legal counsel to review these deals, in an effort to avoid special treatment by companies that might seek favors from the US government. She also said she would not make new deals directly with foreign governments during Trump’s presidency.

But the list of new deals has accelerated in recent months as Trump approaches taking office.

The Saudi Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Company revealed, since the middle of last year, that it would build new towers bearing the Trump name in grandmotherAnd the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in Dubai, In addition to a previously planned project in the Sultanate of Oman. Dar Al Arkan and its subsidiary Dar Global are private companies, but they have close ties to the Saudi government.

In a podcast last month, Mr. Kushner revealed for the first time that he had received $1.5 billion in new financing from the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar and Abu Dhabi. He said he also secured a commitment from Saudi Arabia, which had previously agreed to hand his company $2 billion, to extend its agreement until 2029, two years later than the original date.

In the interview, Mr. Kushner said the move meant he avoided a conflict of interest, as he said he negotiated these new commitments before his father-in-law was re-elected.

““I made it clear to them that if Trump is elected, they should not expect anything from me in return,” Mr. Kushner said. During the interviewWith broadcaster Patrick O’Shaughnessy.

On Tuesday, Mr. Kushner and his company declined to comment on the matter on the record. To date, his firm, Affinity Partners, has invested about $2 billion of its own money in companies, including about $129 million in… Phoenix Holdingsan Israeli financial services company that has seen its success Stock value rises Since investment by Affinity.

The plan that Trump announced on Tuesday while at Mar-a-Lago centered around Damac, which he said aims to invest $20 billion in the United States “within a very short period of time.” The investment appears to be focused on the data centers needed to handle the fast-growing demands coming from the cloud computing and artificial intelligence industries.

“We are very excited now with his leadership, strategy and open policy to encourage companies to come to the United States,” Mr. Sajwani said, after Mr. Trump called him to the podium at the beginning of his news conference. . “For the past four years, we have been waiting for this moment.”

DAMAC and the Trump Organization are already working together in Dubai by creating the first golf course, and have plans to build a second, although this project has been postponed for a long time. But in the US, Trump said he intends to use the powers of the federal government to help his family business partner, by submitting “urgent reviews” to Damac of any federal environmental matters that may arise in connection with the company’s plans.

“We will move it quickly through the environmental process,” Trump said, adding that a similar benefit would be offered to any company planning to invest $1 billion in the United States, although Damac is the first to receive such a benefit. He promises.

Because Mr. Trump is so close to his children, the moves they make attract attention regardless of whether there is an element related to the Trump Organization. For example, three of Trump’s new government officials posted photos on social media of themselves traveling with Donald Trump Jr., a major political voice, and his father, to Greenland, which The president-elect said he wanted the US government to get it For strategic purposes. Donald Trump Jr. is not joining his father’s government, and does not appear to have held any meetings related to any type of development.

But LIV Golf’s announcement on Tuesday means the Saudi-funded tournament will return to Mr. Trump’s Doral resort in April, with hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent at the venue.

The event also attracts thousands of fans who purchase tickets to the resort, filling the hotel’s restaurants and guest rooms during the multi-day event. LIV events also enhance the international profile of the Trump family’s more than a dozen golf resorts around the world.

“What they do with LIV is very important,” Mr. Trump told the Times at the 2022 tournament at Doral, which as of this year will be used four times by LIV Golf for tournaments. “They put in a lot of effort and spend a lot of money, as you can see.”

Jonathan Swan Contributed to reports.