geoff: As former president
Donald Trump X another run at
the white house, he is
partnering with the key ally on
a new business venture.
Laura barron-lopez has more.
Laura: The multi-billion dollar
deal between trump, the
government of Oman and a Saudi
firm will develop a luxury
complex, according to a new new
York Times report.
And the project is raising
serious ethical questions.
Joining me now is Eric Lipton of
the New York Times.
He's investigated trump family
international deals since 2016.
Eric, thanks so much for
joining.
You have traveled overseas to
investigate this, and you report
that this deal is unlike any
international deal so far that
the trump family has signed.
Why?
Eric: In this case, instead of
simply having their name so to
help increase the value of a
golf course or condos, they are
actually in business with the
government of Oman.
The government of Oman owns the
land and is going to be taking a
cut of the profits from this
deal.
So they are now a part of a
government entity that is doing
this multimillion dollar project
that has a 30 year contract with
the trump family.
It is not only for their name,
they will be reviewing the hotel
design, they will be helping
build the golf course and the
golf club and they will be
managing the hotel and golf club
for decades.
So they will have a significant
financial state that involves
the government of Oman itself.
Laura: Mr. Trump was at the deal
signing in New York City at
trump tower with Saudi real
estate executives in November,
just before he announced his
presidential bid.
He has already brought in some
$5 million from this project.
How much does the former
president stand to benefit?
>> The trump organization the
Saudi real estate company that
is the lead developer on the
project would not tell us how
much they are going to be paid.
It's going to be in the 10
submit ones of dollars over the
course of the life of the
contract, but we just really
have no idea because they won't
tell us.
If he is reelected as president,
he will have to file financial
disclosure reports at least
annually, and we will get some
idea of how much he is making in
the next several years, but we
don't know in total how much he
is going to make.
But it's one of the biggest
projects trump family
internationally has ever been
involved in.
Laura: What are the potential
conflicts of interest here?
>> Oman is in a sensitive
location.
It is 20 miles across the
straight of hormuz and is close
to Saudi Arabia.
It is sort of an intermediary
between the Saudi politicals
concerns and the Iranian
concerns and actually is a place
where recently Biden
administration officials have
gone to potentially talk to her
man about resolving some of our
differences.
At the same time, this is a
country we provided f-16 fighter
jets and missiles to come and to
think that then comes into the
mix the considerations as to how
will this negotiation over Iran
or Saudi Arabia, how might it
impact our deal over managing
the hotel and golf resort
complex and is it going to hurt
our relationship with the omani
government, that that is even
part of the calculus, and might
they do a better deal for Oman
because they have millions or
billions of dollars riding on
it?
It is a question that an
American president has never
faced before.
Laura: And you report that this
is not the only business deal
that the trump family has
crafted in the Middle East.
Federal prosecutors who recently
charged Mr. Trump for
mishandling classified documents
were also seeking information
about those other deals in the
Middle East.
Can you just connect the dots
for us about why it matters that
the former president has all
these ties to that region?
>> To some extent, if you look
at what he did as president, you
would say that is not
surprising.
Jared Kushner was doing shutter
diplomacy in the Middle East as
they were trying to reach some
-- trump was quite engaged in
Saudi Arabia and defending
actions and downplaying the role
of the Saudi government.
He was quite friendly with Saudi
Arabia, and now after he leaves
office, his son-in-law gets $2
billion worth of investment from
the sovereign wealth fund.
Then the sovereign wealth fund
also funds LIV golf, which put
several of its tournaments at
trump golf courses in the united
States.
There's a lot of money between
Middle Eastern companies and
trump business opportunities
that overlap with his
presidency.
It's an open question, but
again, we've never seen
something like this even in the
aftermath of a presidency where
president is profiting from
foreign governments that he was
closely active with during his
presidency.
Laura: Eric Lipton of the new
York Times, thank you so much.
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