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

President-elect Donald J. Trump was at the lectern to speak about the upcoming inauguration of his second term. But from across the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., one could see how the interests of his family business are now fully enmeshed in his plans for state governance -United.

Mr. Trump opened the unusual news conference on Tuesday by introducing Hussain Sajwani, 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 golf course Trump brand in the United States. Middle East.

Today, Mr. Trump said, DAMAC plans to invest billions of dollars in the United States to build data centers, with help from Mr. Trump and the federal government, even as DAMAC continues to play its role as Trump's business partner.

Also there in the room at Mar-a-Lago was Steve Witkoff, who does business with a new crypto company called World Liberty Financial that Mr. Trump and his sons helped start. Mr. Witkoff, while still working with the crypto company, is already Mr. Trump's envoy to the Middle East, and Mr. Witkoff provided an update from the stage on efforts to free Israeli hostages held at Gaza.

Mr. Trump pointed out that one of his sons, Eric Trump, who pushed new deals with Trump Tower in the Middle East, was also in the back of the ballroom, on the same day as LIV Golf, the company financed by Saudi Arabia. golf league, revealed it plans to hold 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 is back in the White House, since LIV Golf is owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

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

All this comes as Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump's son-in-law, recently revealed that he had raised an additional $1.5 billion from Middle Eastern investors for his private equity firm. The company he started after leaving his White House post in 2020 now has more than $4.5 billion, mostly from oil-rich sovereign wealth funds.

“This will be the golden age of America, this is the golden age of America,” Mr. Trump said, as he concluded his more than hour-long press conference , not referring to the activities of his own family business, but to his confidence in the future of America. the nation. We are going to have a great country again.

The extent of overlap between Mr. Trump's family members, their business interests and the government he will lead, all presented on the same day, underscores how unprecedented Trump's second presidency will be and the potential for conflicts interest will be unprecedented.

During the first term, the Trump administration had at least some concerns about the optics of financial mixing between Trump's businesses and the government, said Adav Noti, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, a legal advocacy group. non-profit ethics. What we're seeing with the new administration is no longer that kind of concern about those optics. It feels like the handcuffs are being removed.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, rejected the criticism.

Members of President Trump's family are highly respected and intelligent individuals who love our country, she said in a statement. They always played a vital role in President Trump's campaigns and his first administration and made many personal sacrifices to help their father make America great again.

Ms. Leavitt also highlighted Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, who secured contracts worth millions of dollars while his father was vice president from foreign business executives.

The Trump family has made it clear since the election that they have no plans to walk away from new international deals like they did in 2017, meaning they will continue to announce new projects around the world whole, Eric Trump said in an interview with the New York Times. last month.

The family still plans to announce an ethics plan that will include hiring outside legal counsel to review such deals, aiming to avoid special treatment from companies that may seek favors from the U.S. government. He also said he would not enter into new deals directly with foreign governments as long as Mr. Trump is president.

But the list of new deals has accelerated in recent months as Mr. Trump prepares to take office.

Dar Al Arkan, a Saudi Arabia-based real estate company, has revealed since the middle of last year that it would build new towers named after Trump in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, in addition to a previously planned project in Oman. Dar Al Arkan and its subsidiary Dar Global are private companies, but they have close ties to the Saudi government.

Mr. Kushner, in a podcast last month, revealed for the first time that he had received new funding worth $1.5 billion from the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar and Abu Dhabi. He said he also had a commitment from Saudi Arabia, which had previously agreed to provide $2 billion to his company, to extend their deal until 2029, two years later than the previous date. initial.

Mr. Kushner, in the interview, said the move meant he was avoiding conflicts of interest, as he said he negotiated these new commitments before his father-in-law's re-election.

I told them very clearly that if Trump was elected, they shouldn't expect anything from me for that, Mr. Kushner said during the interview with podcaster Patrick O'Shaughnessy.

Mr. Kushner and his office declined to comment officially on the matter on Tuesday. To date, Affinity Partners, his company, has invested about $2 billion of its funds in companies, including about $129 million in Phoenix Holdings, an Israeli financial services company that has seen its stock value rise since Affinity's investment.

The plan announced by Mr. Trump on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago centered on DAMAC, which he said aimed to invest $20 billion in the United States over a very short period of time. The investment has apparently focused on data centers needed to meet growing demand from the cloud computing and artificial intelligence sectors.

We are very, very excited about his leadership, his strategy and his open policy to encourage businesses to come to the United States, Mr. Sajwani said, after Mr. Trump invited him on stage at the start of his conference press. We have been waiting for this moment for four years.

DAMAC and the Trump Organization are already working together in Dubai with a first golf course and are considering building a second, although this project has long been delayed. But in the United States, Mr. Trump said, he intends to use the powers of the federal government to help his family business partner, offering DAMAC expedited reviews of any federal environmental issues that might emerge in connection with company projects.

We're going to move them quickly through the environmental process, Trump said, adding that a similar benefit would be offered to any company considering investing $1 billion in the United States, although DAMAC would be the first to get a such a promise.

Because Mr. Trump is so close to his children, the gestures they make attract attention, whether or not there is anything related to the Trump Organization. For example, three of Mr. Trump's new administration officials posted photos on social media of themselves traveling with Donald Trump Jr., a key political voice alongside his father, to Greenland, which the president-elect said want the US government to acquire. for strategic purposes. Donald Trump Jr. is not joining his father's administration and does not appear to have held any meetings related to any developments.

But LIV Golf's announcement on Tuesday means the Saudi-funded tournament will return to Mr. Trump's Doral resort in April, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on site.

The event also draws thousands of ticket-buying fans to the resort, filling hotel restaurants and guest rooms during the multi-day event. LIV events also boost the international profile of more than a dozen Trump Family Golf Resorts around the world.

What they're doing with LIV is very important, Mr. Trump told the Times at the 2022 competition at Doral, which as of this year will have been used four times by LIV Golf for tournaments. They put a lot of effort and a lot of money into it, as you see.

Jonathan Swan contributed reporting.

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