Highlights:
Trump Struck A Deal To Build A Multibillion-Dollar Real Estate Project In Oman. According to the New York Times, “On a remote site at the edge of the Gulf of Oman, thousands of migrant laborers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are at work in 103-degree heat, toiling in shifts from dawn until nightfall to build a new city, a multibillion-dollar project backed by Oman’s oil-rich government that has an unusual partner: former President Donald J. Trump. […] Mr. Trump has been selling his name to global real estate developers for more than a decade. But the Oman deal has taken his financial stake in one of the world’s most strategically important and volatile regions to a new level, underscoring how his business and his politics intersect as he runs for president again amid intensifying legal and ethical troubles.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Eric Trump Traveled To The Site Of The Project In Oman To Meet With Saudi Developers And Omani Officials. According to the New York Times, “In February, Eric Trump, the former president’s son who is overseeing the project for Trump Organization while also playing a role in his father’s re-election campaign, traveled to Oman to visit the cliff-side site where the golf course will soon be built. He met with executives from Dar Al Arkan, the Saudi firm, as well as top government officials from Oman who control the land. ‘It’s like the Hamptons of the Middle East,’ Eric Trump said in an interview, declining to address other questions about the project.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Just Before Trump Announced His Reelection Campaign, Trump Hosted Saudi Developers In New York City To Sign The Multibillion Dollar Real Estate Deal. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump was on hand to close the deal in New York in November, just before he announced his 2024 presidential bid. Executives from the Saudi real estate company visited Trump Tower and showed off designs for the project, and Eric Trump signed paperwork confirming the deal.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Neither Trump Nor The Saudi Developers Would Disclose How Much Trump Would Profit Off The Deal. According to the New York Times, “Neither Dar Al Arkan nor the Trump Organization would say how much the Trump family would be paid.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Trump Received Several Fees In Previous International Deals. In previous international deals, the family has traditionally taken a fee in exchange for the use of its name, a separate fee to manage the hotel and golf properties, and a percentage of the profits on the sale of Trump-branded villas, if the prices hit a goal.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Saudi Development Group Dar Al Arkan Brought Trump And His Family Into The Multibillion-Dollar Deal In Oman. According to the New York Times, “it was through Dar Al Arkan, the Saudi real estate company, that Mr. Trump and his family firm got into the Oman project.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
An Omani Official Said That Dar Al Arkan Brought In Trump To Help Gain Attention And Sell The Project. According to the New York Times, “Hashil bin Obaid Al Mahrouqi, the chief executive of the Omani government agency that oversees the Yiti project, said it was Dar Al Arkan’s choice to bring in Mr. Trump, but he added that international brands like Mr. Trump’s would help bring global attention — and sales — to the project.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
The Trump Organization Agreed To A Thirty Year Deal With Dar Al Arkan To Manage The Golf Course, Hotel, And Residences. According to the New York Times, “Mr. El Chaar had worked with the Trump family in Dubai, building a Trump International Golf Club. Pleased with that project, he asked the Trump family to join him in Oman, in what will be DarGlobal’s largest international project, worth an estimated $4 billion. The 30-year agreement between DarGlobal and the Trump family designates the Trump Organization as the hotel manager that will ‘direct the management and operation of a world-class, superluxury hotel to be constructed by Dar Oman within its Aida project in Oman.’ The deal puts the Trump company in charge of the hotel budget, its restaurants and any retail stores. The Trump Organization will set prices and market the hotel once it opens under the name Trump International Hotel Oman. It will have similar management rights over the 18-hole golf course and golf club, which will be known as Trump International Golf Club Oman. There will also be over 200 ‘Trump branded residential villas,’ according to one company document published in January, and marked confidential. The Trump family, the agreement says, will not have to commit its own money to the project, but it will have detailed oversight including reviewing a ‘model room’ that DarGlobal will build to sign off on the design.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Dar Al Arkan Maintained Close Personal And Financial Ties To The Saudi Government. According to the New York Times, “Dar Al Arkan was founded nearly three decades ago by Saudi real estate executives who bought up land for future housing developments, and it eventually became a large-scale home builder itself. It maintains extremely close ties with the Saudi government. Dar Al Arkan is one of the country’s most important beneficiaries of a decision more than a decade ago by Saudi Arabia to pump in billions of dollars of government funds to help create a modern, mortgage-backed housing industry in an effort to expand homeownership. It is also a major investor in Saudi Home Loans Company, which has profited as government dollars flow into the mortgage industry. Dar Al Arkan more recently moved into international luxury real-estate development, this time through a London-based subsidiary it set up called DarGlobal.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Trump Had A Deal With Saudi-Backed LIV Golf. According to the New York Times, “While in office, Mr. Trump developed a tight relationship with Saudi leaders. Since leaving office, he has worked with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to host the LIV golf tour […] Mr. Trump’s business ties in the Middle East have already been under intense scrutiny. Federal prosecutors who brought criminal charges against him in the case stemming from his mishandling of classified documents issued subpoenas for information about his foreign deals and the agreements with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
New York Times: “Trump’s Family Business Profited Directly From Money Spent At His Washington Hotel By Foreign Governments Including Saudi Arabia.” According to the New York Times, “During his presidency, Mr. Trump’s family business profited directly from money spent at his Washington hotel by foreign governments including Saudi Arabia, just one example of what ethics experts cited as real or perceived conflicts of interest during his administration.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Kushner Received $2 Billion From The Saudis For His Investment Venture. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Kushner received a $2 billion infusion from the Saudi fund for his investment venture.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Eric Trump Met With Top Government Officials From Oman. According to the New York Times, “In February, Eric Trump, the former president’s son who is overseeing the project for Trump Organization while also playing a role in his father’s re-election campaign, traveled to Oman to visit the cliff-side site where the golf course will soon be built. He met with executives from Dar Al Arkan, the Saudi firm, as well as top government officials from Oman who control the land.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
While President, Trump Sent Jared Kushner To Meet With The Omani Sultan At The Time. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump, while at the White House, had sent Mr. Kushner to Oman in 2019 to meet with Sultan Qaboos bin Said, then the nation’s monarch, to discuss the Arab-Israeli dispute. Mr. Trump later reached out to Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, who took over as the new sultan in 2020, to praise ‘the success of the first eight months’ of his rule and to discuss ways to ‘strengthen the Oman-U.S. bilateral economic partnership,’ according to a White House summary of the call.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Trump Praised The New Omani Sultan. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump later reached out to Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, who took over as the new sultan in 2020, to praise ‘the success of the first eight months’ of his rule and to discuss ways to ‘strengthen the Oman-U.S. bilateral economic partnership,’ according to a White House summary of the call.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
The Omani Government Provided Nearly 3,000 Acres Of Land For The Project And Was Expected To Be Paid Back Over Time. According to the New York Times, “In Oman, the government’s contribution to the Yiti project starts with the land: It has set aside nearly 3,000 acres along the Gulf of Oman for the project, a quarter of which it has turned over to the Saudi-run Dar Al Arkan. The Omani government will be paid back over time for the land, and get a cut of the profits from the project, according to a detailed description of the deal made public in a financial filing in London.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
The Omani Government Invested Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars To Upgrade Infrastructure And To Sponsor The Project. According to the New York Times, “Separately, the government of Oman is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade highways and utilities, and to sponsor the first phase of the project, which includes a Nikki Beach resort hotel that is already being built adjacent to where the Trump golf course and hotel are planned. [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Oman And Its Ruling Sultan Have Maintained Close Ties To Saudi Arabia And Iran. According to the New York Times, “Oman, in fact, is nothing like the Hamptons. It is a Muslim nation and absolute monarchy, ruled by a sultan, who plays a sensitive role in the Middle East: Oman maintains close ties with Saudi Arabia and its allies, but also with Iran, with which it has considerable trade.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Trump Profited From Foreign Governments Including Saudi Arabia. According to the New York Times, “During his presidency, Mr. Trump’s family business profited directly from money spent at his Washington hotel by foreign governments including Saudi Arabia, just one example of what ethics experts cited as real or perceived conflicts of interest during his administration. His stake in the project in Oman as he runs for president again only focuses more attention on whether and how his own financial interests could influence foreign policy were he to return to the White House.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Chief Ethics Counsel To Citizens For Responsibility And Ethics In Washington On Trump’s Ethical Issues Related To The Oman Project: “This Is As Blatant As It Comes.” According to the New York Times, “‘This is as blatant as it comes,’ said Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit group that has investigated Mr. Trump’s foreign deals. ‘How and when is he going to sell out U.S. interests? That is the question this creates. It is the kind of corruption our founding fathers most worried about.’” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
DarGlobal Targeted Buyers To Pay For Branded Townhouses In Cash. According to the New York Times, “DarGlobal is targeting buyers who will pay as much as a 30 percent premium for a “branded” townhouse and can often buy their units with cash, according to a confidential company document obtained by The Times.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Luxury Villas Were Sold To The Ultra-Wealthy From Russia, Iran, And India Using Trump’s Name. Mr. Trump’s name is plastered on signs at the entrance of the project and in the lobby of the InterContinental Hotel in Muscat, the nearby capital of Oman, where a team of sales agents is invoking Mr. Trump’s name to help sell luxury villas at prices of up to $13 million, mostly targeting superrich buyers from around the world, including from Russia, Iran and India.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
More Than 1,000 Migrant Workers Live In Trailers On Site Or Are Bused In To Build The Luxury Real Estate In High Heat And Long Shifts. According to the New York Times, “More than 1,000 migrant laborers are busy in the searing heat building the first phase of the Oman government’s Yiti project. Next door, at the Aida site, where the Trump-branded phase of the project will eventually rise, work on the roads is just beginning. The army of workers, in orange, blue or yellow overalls, move deliberately, many of them with their heads covered with towels and other fabrics stuffed under their hard hats to try to protect themselves from the heat, routinely above 100 degrees, during 10-hour shifts. They live mostly in trailer camps adjacent to the construction site, or they arrive in fleets of buses that run through the billowing clouds of dust that blow through.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Migrant Workers Received A Wage Of As Little As $340 A Month To Build The Luxury Real Estate. According to the New York Times, “The workers are being paid as little as $340 a month, according to one of the engineers who is supervising the work.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
The U.S. State Department Claimed That Oman Did Not Enforce Safety And Health Labor Standards With Foreign Workers. According to the New York Times, “Like other Middle Eastern nations, Oman has drawn scrutiny for its treatment of foreign workers. In a report last year, the State Department listed ‘labor exploitation of foreign migrants’ as among the human rights issues it is monitoring in Oman. Some low-skilled migrant workers in fields including construction ‘faced working conditions indicative of forced labor,’ said the report, which went on to say that Oman has ‘appropriate’ safety and health labor standards that, it noted, an advocacy group said were not always enforced for foreign workers.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
The Village Directly Below The Luxury Real Estate Project Was Largely Abandoned Once Construction Began. According to the New York Times, “The Trump-branded project is being built just above the seaside village of Yiti, where there are now more donkeys, goats and stray cats in the streets than people, as many have moved away as the construction projects have accelerated.” [New York Times, 6/20/23]
Trump Reported More Than $5 Million In Income From The Oman Partnership. “In late 2022, the Trump Organization agreed to manage and brand a $1.6 billion golf and resort project in Oman, teaming up with Dar Al Arkan, a Saudi real-estate firm. Trump reported more than $5 million in income from that partnership in his 2022 financial-disclosure form. He also has golf courses, hotels, resorts, condominiums and other ventures in more than 10 countries on four continents.” [Wall Street Journal, 2/5/24]
Dar Global Announced The Opening Of Sales In The Aida Project, Their Joint Venture With The Sultan Of Oman And The Trump Organization. According to Construction Week, “Real estate developer Dar Global, has officially launched the sales of AIDA, a premium mixed-use real estate project in Oman, located just 10 minutes from Downtown Muscat. […] Dar Global’s AIDA project is a joint venture with Omran Group, the Sultanate’s executive arm for tourism development, to advance Oman’s real estate market in line with the country’s Vision 2040. The project is part of Dar Global’s collaboration with the Trump Organisation and is poised to offer an unmatched luxury experience to both tourists and residents. This ambitious project is expected to drive tourism in Oman and bolster the country’s property market, supporting the goals of Vision 2040.” [Construction Week, 3/20/23]
The Trump Organization And Dar Global Announced The Launch Of The $500 Million Trump International Oman At Their AIDA Project. According to Gulf Business, “Dar Global, the London-listed arm of Saudi’s Dar Al Arkan, has unveiled a mega-luxury real estate development in partnership with the Trump Organization. The two developers have launched Trump International Oman at the sprawling AIDA project. With an investment of $500m, the Trump International Oman is poised to be a landmark in the American developer’s global portfolio and a crown jewel in Oman’s burgeoning real estate landscape. This new venture, set to open in December 2028, promises to redefine opulent living and hospitality in Oman, said the official release.” [Gulf Business, 6/26/24]