Trump welcomes Saudi leader to White House with a business deal in the works
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler is expected to step onto U.S. soil Tuesday as his country seeks a deal with President Donald Trump’s real estate company for a luxury development, The New York Times reported. The meeting reportedly hinges on Trump’s plan for the country to eventually sign on to the Abraham Accords, as others criticize the president’s coziness with the kingdom.
Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman will meet Trump as he returns to the U.S. for the first time in eight years in anticipation of defense and artificial intelligence deals, according to The Times. Their meeting comes as bin Salman has sought to negotiate more deals with the Trump Organization, the president’s family business, for a $63 billion redevelopment project.
According to The Times, the project focuses on Diriyah, a town the Saudi government wants to turn into a mixed-use luxury destination. The Trump Organization has planned a luxury hotel and plaza to anchor the neighborhood.
When he returned to the White House in January, Trump announced he wouldn’t control or benefit from his businesses while in office, leaving his children in charge of his companies. But his May trip to Saudi Arabia and his tour of the redevelopment project suggested that his promise may have faltered.
“In each country where Trump has business interests, especially those where he has new properties under development, he will know that decisions he makes as president could impact his bottom line,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said in May.
Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told Reuters last December that he has “no interaction with Washington, D.C.” and that he does not want it.
Beyond the anticipated deals, Trump himself has long been criticized for his close relationships with Saudis and other nations in the Persian Gulf that some have said go against U.S. interests.
Trump vowed nearly 24 hours before the meeting to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, PBS News reported. He told reporters the Saudis “have been a great ally” after the announcement.
Trump, MBS relationship
The last time the Saudi crown prince visited the U.S. was in 2018, before his country’s leaders authorized the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, 60, in Turkey, according to a Director of National Intelligence report on the assassination. Khashoggi was known as a strong critic of the Saudi government, and the report said the Saudis have long used violent measures to silence dissidents abroad.
The prince’s visit came during Trump’s first term as president, and the two are expected to deepen their relationship in the president’s current term. The two reunited as leaders in May, when Trump made his first international trip since his reelection to Saudi Arabia.
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President Trump brokered the Abraham Accords in 2020 to normalize diplomatic relations between Arab nations and Israel.
Trump praised the country and bin Salman during the meeting, describing Saudi Arabia’s changes to meet the prince’s Vision 2030 plan as a “modern miracle the Arabian way,” wrote Imad Harb, director of research analysis at the Arab Center Washington in May. In November, Trump also lifted sanctions on the newly liberated Syria and removed a $10 million bounty from Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a Saudi ally.
Their relationship will get tested as Trump has urged bin Salman to sign onto the Abraham Accords, an agreement several Arab nations reached to normalize relations with Israel. So far, Kosovo, Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates have signed, according to the Department of State.
“I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords fairly shortly,” Trump told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One.
It’s a tricky situation for Trump, who has aligned the U.S. mostly with Israel. Meanwhile, the crown prince has pledged the country’s “unwavering support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” according to a Nov. 6 release from the Saudi-operated Saudi Press Agency.
Trump Organization, Saudi hotel
The Trump Organization announced plans in September for a $1 billion development to complement the Trump Tower Jeddah hotel project. Trump’s company is working with Saudi-based investor DarGlobal for the project.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a frequent Trump critic, posted about the Trump Organization’s deal on X.
“And the Saudis want a mutual defense agreement and access to U.S. nuclear technology,” Schiff wrote. “Looks like Trump and the royal family will both win, with our national security for sale. The only losers? The American people.”
The Trump Organization said in January that the president would separate himself from the company during his presidency, Reuters reported. He made a similar announcement during his first term, but he reportedly often mixed presidential and business deals.
According to Politico in 2020, a Chinese state-owned company secured a contract to develop a Trump golf course in the United Arab Emirates, T-Mobile executives stayed in a Trump hotel while seeking approval for a merger, and an IRS commissioner collected rent from two Hawaii Trump condos.
Several years later, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a report that revealed Trump received at least $7.8 million from 20 governments while in office.
“This staggering figure reflects payments to just four of the more than 500 entities Trump owned while he was in office: Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York, and Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza in New York,” Democrats wrote in 2024.
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