The first presidential trip of US President Donald J. Trump’s second term was welcomed with lavish celebrations by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
During the visit, these Gulf states committed to investing around $2 trillion through technology and defence deals with American companies, strengthening their economic and political partnerships with the US.
During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump developed strong political and business ties with Gulf countries through arms and diplomatic deals, including the Abraham Accords.
After leaving office, those relationships continued, this time through private deals involving his businesses.
The presidential visit, however, put a spotlight on the overlap between Trump’s embrace of dealmaking and US diplomacy, with concerns that foreign policy could be shaped around his family’s business interests.
Just weeks before the trip, his sons Eric and Donald Jr had travelled extensively to the region to canvass support for the Trump Organization, which they now run.
Michael Wahid Hanna, US Program Director at International Crisis Group, told The New Arab that Trump feels comfortable working with Gulf leaders because of his deal-making approach, long-standing personal relationships with Gulf rulers, and shared focus on wealth, investment, and mutual interests.
“There’s a core transactionalism that has defined Trump’s interactions with the region – one that the Gulf countries understand and know how to respond to,” he said. “I think it’s about familiarity and a shared way of operating.”
The Gulf stands out for its immense wealth and ambitious efforts to diversify beyond oil, attracting foreign investment while investing billions abroad.
Gulf countries manage some of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, holding an estimated $4-5 trillion, around 40% of the $12 trillion in global SWF assets, a figure projected to reach $18 trillion by 2030, according to the accounting firm Deloitte.
Amid this massive flow of Gulf wealth and investments, the Trump Organization has formed profitable business ties in the region, prompting questions about where private financial interests might blur into US policy decisions.
Unlike past presidents who fully separated from their businesses, Trump placed his assets in a trust managed by his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who are also top executives at the Trump Organization. In January, the company pledged not to make deals directly with foreign governments, but it can still work with private companies, unlike during Trump’s first term.
Since 2024, the Trump Organization has launched major real estate projects across the Gulf, often involving licensing the Trump name for hotels and residences.
In Oman, the company is developing a $500 million resort with Dar Global, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Dar Al Arkan, and Omran, a government-owned Omani group. Oman is playing a key diplomatic role in nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
In Saudi Arabia, the company is partnering with Dar Global on a $531 million Trump Tower in Jeddah and planning a second tower in Riyadh.
In May 2025, the Trump Organization and Dar Global announced the launch of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Dubai. Just before his trip to the Gulf, R Dar Global and Qatari Diar, part of the state’s sovereign wealth fund, announced a Trump-branded resort in Qatar valued at $5.5 billion.
Previously, after the PGA Tour, a major US golf organisation, pulled its 2022 championship from Trump’s New Jersey course to distance itself from the 6 January Capitol riots, Trump partnered with Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which now holds events at his properties.
Trump’s Gulf visits served both US political and economic goals and his family’s private business interests, which coexist but don’t necessarily conflict with each other, according to Paul Salem, vice president for international engagement at the Middle East Institute.
“I don’t think necessarily one is driving the other. I do think that Trump certainly enjoys the lavish receptions from Gulf states. He believes that those leaders respect him, something he doesn’t feel he gets from Western European counterparts,” he told TNA.
However, the Trump family’s business interests extend beyond the Trump Organization.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former senior advisor during his first term, played a key role in Middle East diplomacy during Trump’s first term, including promoting a $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia and advancing talks that led to the Abraham Accords between Israel and several Arab states.
After leaving the White House, Kushner formed the investment firm Affinity Partners in 2021.
Since then, the firm has raised substantial capital from Gulf sources. In 2022, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) committed $2 billion to Affinity.
In 2024, the firm secured an additional $1.5 billion from the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based asset manager Lunate. Reuters reports that Affinity’s assets under management surged by 60% to $4.8 billion by the end of 2024.
Both Affinity Partners and the Trump Organization have also invested in Israeli tech companies and real estate ventures, respectively.
US media outlet CNN counted that in terms of deals, the Trump family’s business connections in the Middle East have more than tripled since his first term as president.
Today, the Trump family’s interests are also eyeing cryptocurrency, and they have moved far beyond meme coins like $TRUMP and $MELANIA.
They’re now involved in World Liberty Financial, a decentralised finance platform launched in September 2024. Donald Trump and his sons, Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron, reportedly control 60% of the company.
The platform also lists US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his sons Zach and Alex as co-founders.
MGX, an artificial intelligence (AI) investment firm out of Abu Dhabi, launched by Mubadala, a sovereign wealth fund of the government of Abu Dhabi, and G42, an Emirati AI company, used USD1, a stablecoin launched by World Liberty Financial in March 2025 to invest $2 billion in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
These operations involving cryptocurrency and AI firms align closely with US public policy in the Gulf under the Trump administration.
As Salem noted, the most significant strategic move during Trump’s Gulf visit was the push to make the UAE and Gulf region a hub for US artificial intelligence data centres, a long-term goal of Washington to compete with China.
Because AI needs a lot of energy and the US doesn’t have enough, Trump has pushed to increase local oil and gas production, but the Gulf’s cheaper and more plentiful energy is still key. OpenAI recently announced it will build a massive $20 billion data centre in the UAE, with part of it set to start running next year.
“There’s enough political trust between the US and these countries for security issues and to keep China out of that AI space. And the need to ramp up AI is an interest shared by both Republicans and Democrats,” Salem said.
When it comes to Trump-related businesses intertwining with US government policy, the Democrats see serious legal and ethical concerns, which are hard to enforce, while Republicans largely ignore them.
“This has just become a way of operating. So, it’s no longer the kind of shocking and brazen efforts that influence peddling used to be. It has now become the standard way that many countries, perhaps most prominently the Gulf, interact with Trump. It’s just one of the ways in which their relationship is constructed,” Salem added.
For Gulf countries, the US is their long-term security guarantor, something China cannot replace, and economically, Gulf investors favour the US because of the strict rule of law, good markets, and low regulations.
“Giving benefits to Trump and his family enables them to secure better deals with the US. They see it as a win-win situation. For them, the relationship with the US is beneficial in terms of security, technology, investment, and purchasing weaponry,” according to Salem.
Still, Trump’s foreign policy in the Gulf and Middle East isn’t just about business, economics, or family deals.
Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 and Israel’s war on Gaza, defined as a genocide, and Lebanon, which killed at least 3,000 people, the Middle East has been at the heart of US foreign policy.
The early focus has been on Iran nuclear talks, a ceasefire deal with the Houthis, maintaining a ceasefire in Lebanon, changes in Syria policy by lifting sanctions, and the Gaza war.
“It would be hard to say that a commercial and economic agenda could simply take precedence and ignore all of the underlying issues and conflicts that continue to be a major feature of the region,” Hanna said.
Dario Sabaghi is a freelance journalist interested in human rights. Follow him on Twitter: @DarioSabaghi
