Saudi Arabian real estate developer Dar Al Arkan signed an agreement with former US President Donald Trump’s company to use the Trump Brand for its $4 billion project in the Gulf state of Oman that includes a golf course, hotel and villas, Reuters has revealed.
The regulatory statement issued on Sunday by Dar Al Arkan did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement with the Trump Organization, which manages hotels, golf courses and other real estate around the world.
The Aida project, a joint venture with Oman Tourism Development Company, will include Trump residential villas, a hotel and a golf course built near Muscat and would take over a decade to complete, Reuters quoted the Dar Al Arkan as saying.
Trump had handed control of the business to his sons while in office.
Trump’s son-in-law scores $2 billion investment from MBS
According to Reuters, Trump has enjoyed close ties with Gulf states during his tenure as president, including Saudi Arabia which has invested $2 billion with a firm of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former aide, incorporated after Trump left office.
The Trump Organization has two golf properties in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East’s financial and tourism hub, in partnership with property developer Damac.
Trump, who has mounted relentless attacks on the integrity of U.S. voting since his 2020 election defeat, launched a bid on Nov. 15 to regain the presidency in 2024.
The New York Times also quoted a company executive as saying that the project is slated to be built in Muscat, Oman, on a hillside adjacent to the Gulf of Oman, and will include a golf resort, villas and two hotels.
The Trump family is teaming up with Dar Al Arkan, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest real estate companies, for the project, the source added.
Deals like this — in which the Trump family gets a cut of condo sales or golf course revenue in exchange for allowing its name to be used — used to be a major source of revenue for the Trump Organization before Mr. Trump was elected president.
But the family agreed to not sign any new international deals while Mr. Trump was in the White House, and it has been slow to negotiate any new ones since he left office as civil and criminal investigations have distracted the Trumps and put a crimp in the company’s growth.
MBS’ Failed Deals
The new deal comes as the Trump Organization is inundated with legal problems. It is on trial in State Supreme Court in Manhattan for criminal tax fraud charges, and it is fighting a lawsuit from the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who accused Trump, his company and three of his children of fraud.
The financial terms of the deal with Dar Al Arkan were not disclosed. But a spokesman for the Trump Organization confirmed the paperwork had been signed to have the Trump brand be a part of the $1.6 billion project, which goes by the name Aida and will include an estimated 3,500 residential units, luxury retail and 450 rooms at the hotels.
The New York Times pointed out that Trump had close ties with the Saudi government during his tenure in the White House, authorizing billions of dollars in weapons sales and defending the government there after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Massive Saudi investment with Jared Kushner raises questions
In an exclusive investigation, US journalist Vicky Ward reveals the real reason behind Jared Kushner’s $2 billion investment by MBS.
She wrote about the staggering sum of $2 billion entrusted by the Saudi investment fund PIF to Jared Kushner’s new fund, Affinity Partners—reportedly at the behest of Saudi Crown Prince MBS over objections by a panel of financial advisers who highlighted Kushner’s lack of track record.
She reported that the money was possibly both an IOU for sympathetic foreign policy led by Kushner during the Trump years and also a bet by MBS on a return to the White House by Kushner’s father-in-law, Donald Trump.
However, she indicated that there is another reason behind the deal. Kushner and Kushner’s allies who blocked top-level U.S. government support for MBS’s cousin, former Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (MBN)—a long-time intelligence and counter-terrorist asset for the U.S.—when MBN attempted a legal coup d’état in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2017.
