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Donald Trump's plans to accept a $400-million jet from the royal family of Qatar, with the lavish aircraft reportedly set to replace Air Force One during Trump's second term, is shining new light on the president's trip this week to the Middle East. The excursion likely will be as much about the Trump family business as it is any U.S.-related diplomacy, maybe more so, according to a report at the Associated Press (AP). Trump-related bank accounts could be set to rake in a major infusion of cash, raising concerns among ethics experts and Democrats back home.
Under the headline "Trump to visit Gulf region, where diplomacy collides with his family business; The Trump Organization has several active projects in the Gulf region," AP's Lucien Bruggeman reports:
When President Donald Trump arrives in the Persian Gulf today for his first overseas visit since regaining the White House, he'll touch down in a region that's rich in opportunity. On the diplomatic front, he's expected to focus on trade agreements and economic ties.
But for Trump and his family, there are also opportunities in the form of business ventures and real-estate deals.
Some ethics experts say the way his family business has approached these opportunities brings up familiar concerns of potential conflicts of interest as Trump meets with the region's leaders, who could hold sway over the success of Trump's ventures there.
During Trump's first term, his family said they wouldn't pursue any new overseas business ventures. But now, in Trump's second term, the Trump Organization has several active projects in the Gulf region -- including some that have launched in the months since Trump returned to office -- suggesting that his self-imposed moratorium has dissipated.
Trump's visit to the United Arab Emirates, for example, comes just over a week after the Trump Organization announced the development of an 80-floor residential building and club called the Trump International Hotel & Tower, Dubai.
At a launch party for the project last week, an executive of Dar Global, the development firm partnering with the Trump Organization, said in a highly produced social media clip that the project "is perfectly positioned to capture Dubai's growth, offering investors the rare chance to be part of a global success -- powered by the Trump name and Dar Global's expertise."
And last week, the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, announced that an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm would be making a major $2 billion investment in the firm.
USD1, World Liberty Financial's so-called "stablecoin" -- a digital asset designed to maintain a stable value -- is expected to be used to complete Emirati investment firm MGX's $2 billion investment transaction in crypto exchange Binance, ABC News reported.
Of particular note is Trump's interest in the gift of a $400-million jet from the royal family of Qatar. The timing of that possible transaction could say a lot about the overriding drivers of Trumpian activity in the region, Bruggeman writes:
In Qatar, Trump will arrive just two weeks after his son Eric Trump inked a deal to develop a $5.5-billion golf club just north of Doha, called the Trump International Golf Club, Simaisima, which will include "an 18-hole golf course, exclusive clubhouse, and Trump-branded villas," according to plans.
And in Saudi Arabia, three Trump Organization projects are currently underway, including two residential projects and a golf course. The development firm they've partnered with for many of these regional projects, Dar Global, reportedly has close ties to the Saudi government.
Trump also recently hosted a high-profile golf tournament for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour at his Trump National Doral resort near Miami.
Before Trump was sworn in for his second term, Eric Trump announced that the Trump Organization had hired an outside ethics adviser to help the firm enact a "series of comprehensive ethical measures" that would "proactively address potential conflicts."
"Although neither federal law nor the United States Constitution prohibits Presidents from continuing to own, operate, and manage their businesses and investments while in office, The Trump Organization has taken these additional steps as part of its ongoing commitment to ensuring transparency, upholding the highest legal standards and avoiding even the appearance of ethical concerns," said the announcement.
Not all observers are persuaded by Eric Trump's statement, Bruggeman reports:
Many ethics experts have roundly criticized the arrangement as insufficient. Danielle Brian, executive director of the nonpartisan government watchdog Project on Government Oversight (POGO), told ABC News that the Trump Organization’s business endeavors, including those overseas, are entirely legal -- but that Trump is "taking the weakness in our current ethics laws ... to just a whole new level in this administration."
"We've never seen the kind of money at stake and the kind of brazen leveraging of political power for a personal financial gain that we've seen in this administration," Brian said.
Brian is not alone in her assessment. In fact, the head of another D.C.-based watchdog group -- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) -- noted that Trump business arrangements in the Middle East could come back to bite the president and his constituents in ways neither has likely considered. And Trump's lack of transparency on financial disclosures has not helped his cause. From the AP report:
Ahead of Trump's visit to the Gulf, the ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wrote that "Trump knows that the decisions he makes as president could affect his bottom line, and foreign officials in those countries could provide special treatment for the president of the United States -- or exact punishment for decisions they don't like."
Trump has yet to release his financial disclosures as president, so it's unclear what arrangements he has made to ensure a firewall between his personal businesses and his presidency. But Trump and the White House have repeatedly and forcefully denied that his private business interests amount to a conflict of interest.
Asked Friday whether Trump would conduct any personal business meetings during his visit to the Middle East, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was "frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit."
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