Eric Trump Secured Crypto Deals During His Recent Trip to the Middle East

This month, the Trump Organization – a conglomerate of more than 500 companies – announced three Trump-branded real estate projects

The Trump Organization has announced three new real estate projects in the Middle East, including a 7km-long entertainment district, 18-hole golf course and a “Land of Legends” theme park on the coast of Qatar.

The project, which is being led by Qatari Diar and will span 1,500 acres of beachfront, is part of a wider move by the Trump Organization to expand its footprint in the region. The conglomerate of more than 500 companies has already begun work on a similar project in Oman, which has drawn scrutiny for its treatment of workers.

In the past few months, the Trumps have also signed property deals with Dar Global, a developer that has ties to the Saudi Arabian government, in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dubai.

Meanwhile, Eric Trump’s brother, Donald Trump Jr, has been busy expanding the family’s business network in Eastern Europe. This month, he visited Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, where he announced plans to build a Trump hotel in Belgrade.

The hotel project is being backed by the private equity firm Affinity Partners, which was founded by the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kushner left the White House in 2021; since then Affinity Partners has received large investments from governments including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to invest in global real estate and tech. Last year its assets grew 60% to $4.8 billion.

After leaving the administration, Kushner also started working with the Israeli tech firm Vivid Money, which has ties to a firm that was sanctioned by the US government for allegedly aiding the Russian government in developing weapons.

The Trump Organization is planning to launch 20 Trump-branded real estate projects in foreign countries during President Trump’s second term, including in India, Uruguay, Oman and Vietnam, according to CREW.

Next week, President Trump will follow in Eric’s footsteps and visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE – all of which are home to Trump-branded projects and ongoing developments.

During the visit, an arms package for Saudi Arabia could be announced, with estimates placing the value at well over $100 billion, according to Reuters.

The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, will also be present for part of the trip, joining her father for the final leg in the UAE.

“In the American experience, we have never had a president with such egregious conflicts of interest since the civil war,” says Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush.

“We’re used to presidents having a blind trust, but in this case we have a president whose family members are actively negotiating new business deals with foreign governments while also serving in the administration.”

Experts are concerned that Trump Organization dealings might influence foreign policy, especially given the administration’s close ties with Gulf state leaders.

Previous financial disclosures have shown that the president himself benefited directly from similar real estate deals, but the White House has argued that “there are no conflicts of interest” because “the president’s assets are in a trust managed by his children”.

The Trump Organization appointed an outside ethics lawyer, William Burck, to review any contracts worth more than $10 million – although President Trump has called for him to be fired for representing Harvard University in its lawsuit against the government.

Eric Trump has said the business “is dedicated to not just meeting but vastly exceeding its legal and ethical obligations during my father’s presidency”.

He won’t be involved in next week’s presidential visit to the Middle East: “I keep total separation. I want nothing to do with politics or policy.”

In a statement to The New York Times, Trump Jr said: “It’s laughable that the left-wing media thinks that I should lock myself in a padded room while my father is president and cease doing what I’ve been doing for over 25 years to earn a living and provide for my five children.”