President Donald Trump’s approval of a nuclear deal that could let Saudi Arabia enrich uranium comes against a business relationship between his family and the kingdom that has expanded sharply since he left office the first time.
The Trump Organization‘s presence in Saudi Arabia dates to August 2015, when Trump quietly registered business entities, including THC Jeddah Hotel Manager LLC, not long after launching his first presidential campaign, according to Forbes reporting on the family’s full Saudi timeline. No project came of it publicly at the time.
The Trump Organization signed a licensing deal with Saudi developer Dar Al Arkan in late 2022, covering a project in Oman that personally brought Trump more than $6 million. By mid-2024, Dar Al Arkan’s international arm, Dar Global, had unveiled Trump Tower Jeddah, with a related licensing entity reporting $15.9 million in fees. Two more Trump-branded Riyadh developments followed by year’s end, shortly after Trump’s election win.
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On September 29, 2025, Dar Global announced the $1 billion Trump Plaza Jeddah, a “Central Park-inspired” complex of residences, offices, and parkland. That same day, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, closed a $55 billion purchase of video game maker Electronic Arts. The Saudi fund had already committed $2 billion to Affinity Partners by 2024, a stake carrying a 1.25% management fee that stands to pay Kushner’s firm well over $100 million across five years.
Forbes estimated Trump and his extended family collected roughly $50 million from Saudi-linked deals in 2024 alone, spanning golf properties, licensing fees, and private equity arrangements.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president and his family have never engaged in “conflicts of interest” and never will. Kushner has his own version of the story, telling “60 Minutes” that what critics call conflicts of interest, he and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff consider “experience and trusted relationships.”
Read: Trump Clears Saudi Nuclear Pact Without Enrichment Safeguards
Concerns about profit motives shaping US-Saudi nuclear policy go back to Trump’s first term. A 2019 House Oversight Committee report found that a private consortium called IP3 International, staffed partly by Trump associates, worked to win contracts building nuclear plants in the kingdom while sidestepping proliferation safeguards.
Then-committee chairman Elijah Cummings said the findings showed “corporate and foreign interests” exploiting their access to push the technology transfer forward.
One Response
“experience with trusted quid pro quo”