Trump's Middle East trip isn't just about diplomacy. It's about the family business | Mohamad Bazzi

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

66% : Hours after his second inauguration, Trump dangled the possibility of a return trip to the kingdom - for a price.
65% : Is it any surprise that Trump would want to use the first major foreign trip of his second term to reward leaders whose countries are making large investments that will ultimately benefit his family's business?
63% : But Trump had made clear that his first state visit would be up for sale to the highest bidder.
60% : During his first term, Trump inflated his administration's role in securing economic deals with Saudi Arabia, including a package of $110bn in weapons sales that he announced with great fanfare during his visit eight years ago.
59% : While US presidents often visit Canada, Mexico or the UK as their first foreign destination, Trump upended that tradition when he traveled to Saudi Arabia in May 2017.
58% : The Trump Organization has millions in developments in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE - sites of his first state visit On his first day back in the White House, reporters asked Donald Trump where he might go on his maiden overseas trip.
53% : The project is part of a longtime partnership between Trump and Hussain Sajwani, an Emirati billionaire and founder of Damac Properties, a Dubai-based developer.
51% : Such a transaction could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Trump and his family - in a financial deal linked to a foreign government and a longtime US ally.
50% : It's clear why the Gulf Arab states - with their vast riches from oil and gas exports, and sovereign wealth funds eager to make investments - would be more attractive to Trump than US neighbors such as Canada and Mexico, or traditional allies such as the UK.
48% : But government watchdog groups estimated that such payments reached $13.6m - and are sounding alarms that Trump could far exceed those sums in his second term, as the family business ventures operated by his two sons are making more foreign deals like the ones with Gulf Arab states.
47% : The deals, announced a month after Trump was elected to a second term, won't require the Trump family business to contribute funds toward building the towers, but they will earn millions of dollars in licensing fees.
45% : He will be meeting with foreign leaders who can make decisions that affect the Trump Organization's projects and relationships with companies that are connected to Gulf Arab governments or their sovereign wealth funds, which could pose an enormous financial conflict of interest for Trump.
42% : As he did in 2017, Trump decided to make Saudi Arabia the first stop of his state visit to the Middle East.
40% : The Saudi leader's comments were quickly forgotten amid the flurry of executive orders and mass government cuts announced by Trump in his early days in office.
36% : But Saudi leaders stuck by Trump, and agreed to hold the LIV professional golf tour at several of his US golf courses, providing millions of dollars in revenue while he was out of office.
35% : (Trump made a brief foreign trip to the Vatican last month for Pope Francis's funeral, but that was not a choreographed state visit by a US president.)
34% : The involvement of Qatari Diar, a real estate company established in 2005 by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, in the Trump Organization's project raises new concerns about Trump violating the US constitution's foreign emoluments clause - his plan to accept a $400m luxury jet from Qatar's royal family notwithstanding.
23% : After Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in January 2021, Trump-owned businesses lost a series of real estate and golf sponsorship deals.

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