Trump is returning from the Middle East flush with investment commitments and to renewed calls from Democrats that his business ties with the cash-rich Gulf States ring with corruption.
In his first major international diplomacy travels, the president toured and met with leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
At the same time, the dealings of the Trump Organization, the holding company for most of Trump’s businesses, are also growing in the Middle East. Trump’s stablecoin will be used in a $2 billion investment by an Abu Dhabi firm. He’s linked to LIV Golf, which is funded by Saudi Arabia. And the Trump Organization’s first real estate project in Qatar will be in collaboration with the real estate arm of the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
The potential business overlaps, in addition to reports that Trump is interested in accepting an airplane from Qatar’s government, have set off a firestorm of ethical accusations from Democrats.
“It would have been unthinkable for any previous president to enter into a $5.5 billion dollar business deal with anybody, nevermind a foreign government, while they are in office. And it still should be unthinkable,” Sen. Chris Murphy said in a floor speech this week. “A foreign government like Qatar should not have a $5 billion dollar chip hanging over the head of a sitting U.S. president. And they should not be gifting him a $400 million dollar plane.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced a resolution that he told NOTUS would address “all the corruption.” It emboldens the Senate to take legal action to ensure the president abides by the Constitution’s emoulment’s clause, which prohibits government officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments without the consent of Congress.
Two real estate developers, Qatari Diar and Dar Global, are set to build the Trump Organization’s first real estate project in Qatar. Qatari Diar’s parent organization is Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. Qatari Diar’s chair, Abdullah bin Hamad bin Abdullah Al Attiya, is also the minister of municipality for Qatar. Dar Global is a publicly traded Saudi company that entered a strategic agreement with Qatari Diar to develop the Trump-branded properties, according to a press release.
“We are incredibly proud to expand the Trump brand into Qatar through this exceptional collaboration with Qatari Diar and Dar Global,” Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said in the release.
Trump has separated himself from the family business. Day-to-day management of the firm is in the hands of his children Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. Still, Democrats say, the deal presents a conflict of interest.
“I think there have to be very careful walls put up in order to not give the appearance that the president is enriching himself from these kinds of deals,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen told NOTUS.
To address ethics concerns, the Trump Organization has twice released an ethics agreement and hired an outside ethics adviser to govern the murky waters between Trump’s duties as president and the operation of the family business.
“At the outset of the first term, there were a lot of questions asked about what, if any, ethical standards would apply to the president. Since the statutory and regulatory standards did not apply to the president, he voluntarily adopted his own standards. Those voluntary standards provided guidelines that were above and beyond the legal requirements, and the president voluntarily adhered to them throughout his first term,” Bobby R. Burchfield, an outside ethics advisor to Trump during his first term, told NOTUS.
In Trump’s second term, a different agreement was authored and another ethics attorney, William A. Burck (who was eventually fired, reportedly at Trump’s direction). Unlike during Trump’s first term, the Trump Organization did not swear off foreign deals. But the agreement does say that the Trump Organization wouldn’t “enter into any new material transactions or contracts with a foreign government, except for Ordinary Course Transactions.”
“[The ethics agreement] is a private commitment with no real enforcement mechanism by anyone outside the company and relies entirely on the good faith of the Trump Organization’s employees to abide by those promises within it,” Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told NOTUS in a statement. “What’s more, the Trump Organization does appear to have already violated their pledge not to conduct new business deals with foreign governments, as their new Qatar golf resort reportedly is in partnership with a company owned by the Qatar sovereign wealth fund.”
Both the White House and some Republican lawmakers have rebuffed Democrats’ calls for stronger divisions between the president and his business interests. With respect to the plane and the Qatar business deal, Republican lawmakers told NOTUS they’re waiting on details.
The White House directed NOTUS to the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.