Trump Organization Is Said to Be in Talks on a Saudi Government Real Estate Deal

 

Trump Organization Is Said to Be in Talks on a Saudi Government Real Estate Deal

 

The chief executive of a Saudi firm says a Trump-branded project is “just a matter of time.” The Trump Organization’s major foreign partner is also signaling new Saudi deals.

 

Vivian Nereim Rebecca R. Ruiz

By Vivian Nereim and Rebecca R. Ruiz

Vivian Nereim reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Rebecca R. Ruiz reported from Dubai.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/world/middleeast/trump-organization-saudi-development-deal.html

Published Nov. 15, 2025

Updated Nov. 16, 2025, 1:34 a.m. ET

 

The Trump Organization is in talks that could bring a Trump-branded property to one of Saudi Arabia’s largest government-owned real estate developments, according to the chief executive of the Saudi company leading the development.

 

The negotiations are the latest example of President Trump blending governance and family business, particularly in Persian Gulf countries. Since returning to office, the president’s family and businesses have announced new ventures abroad involving billions of dollars, made hundreds of millions from cryptocurrency, and sold tickets to a private dinner hosted by Mr. Trump.

 

Mr. Trump is set to host Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, in Washington next week.

 

The prince is overseeing a $63 billion project that is set to transform the historic Saudi town of Diriyah into a luxury destination with hotels, retail shops and office space. The Trump business has a history of lending its name to mixed-use projects touting “iconic luxury.”

 

“Nothing announced yet, but soon to be,” Jerry Inzerillo, chief executive of the Diriyah development and a longtime friend of President Trump, said in an interview. He said it was “just a matter of time” before the Trump Organization sealed a deal.

 

Saudi officials toured the Diriyah development with Mr. Trump during the president’s official state visit in May, with the goal of piquing his interest in the project, Mr. Inzerillo said.

 

“It turned out to be a good stroke of luck and maybe a little bit clever of us to say, ‘OK, let’s appeal to him as a developer’ — and he loved it,” Mr. Inzerillo said.

 

Next week, Prince Mohammed is expected to make his first visit to the United States in seven years. He hopes to sign a mutual defense agreement with Washington and potentially advance a deal to transfer American nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.

 

That sets up a scenario in which Mr. Trump discusses matters of national security with a foreign leader who is also a key figure in a potential business deal with the president’s family.

 

Deal-making and diplomacy are increasingly intertwined for Mr. Trump and his family members. Some have engaged in business talks around the world in tandem with his statecraft, mingling profit-making ventures with political relationships.

 

Diriyah is one of several ongoing Saudi developments that are so big that officials call them “giga-projects.”

 

The Trump Organization did not respond to questions about the potential deal, nor did Eric Trump, one of Mr. Trump’s two sons overseeing the family business. It can be hard to separate hype from reality in international real estate discussions. Speculation doesn’t always lead to negotiations, and negotiations don’t always end in signed contracts.

 

But Mr. Inzerillo’s comments echoed similar remarks from Dar Global, the Trump Organization’s most important foreign business partner and a key conduit to Arab governments and Gulf companies.

 

Dar Global’s chief executive, Ziad El Chaar, said last month that new Trump projects in Saudi Arabia were coming. “You will see us announcing more collaborations with the giga-projects,” he told the Middle East news site Al-Monitor.

 

Dar Global did not say whether those remarks referred to Diriyah or another yet-to-be-announced deal. All of the giga-projects are owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

 

Dar did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Coupled with Mr. Inzerillo’s comments, Mr. El Chaar’s remarks highlight what has been a flurry of Gulf deal-making for Mr. Trump’s family since last year.

 

In Saudi Arabia, a Trump tower is planned for Jeddah, and two projects have been announced in Riyadh. A Trump hotel and tower has moved forward in Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates. And a golf course deal in Qatar has put the Trump family in business with a government-owned real estate firm there.

 

Mr. El Chaar and Dar guided all of those deals. “We launched with a partnership with the esteemed Trump Organization that immediately put the project on the global map,” Mr. El Chaar said last year in Oman, speaking about a Trump golf course and hotel under construction there as part of a project backed by Oman’s government.

 

Each venture generates licensing fees for using the Trump name. Dar paid the Trump Organization $21.9 million in license fees last year, according to his financial disclosure. Some of that money goes to the president himself.

 

Licensing deals can be lucrative, particularly if a development does well. Often, a company is paid for the use of its name and is not required to invest any money in the project itself. The Trump Organization’s licensing agreements are not public, making it impossible to know the terms.

 

Dar Global, a subsidiary of the major Saudi development firm Dar Al Arkan, has close ties to the Saudi government. The firm’s sales offices in London and Riyadh feature architectural models of yet-to-be-built Trump-branded high-rises. Promotional materials feature photos of Trump family members.

 

The Trump Organization swore off new foreign business deals after Mr. Trump’s 2016 election, but that pledge ended with his first term. The recent blending of business and politics has shattered American norms but is ordinary in the Gulf, where hereditary ruling families hold nearly absolute power and the phrase “conflict of interest” carries little weight.

 

In Saudi Arabia, development officials saw Mr. Trump’s state visit in May as a chance to spark his interest in Diriyah, Mr. Inzerillo said. On his first night in Riyadh, ahead of the state dinner, Mr. Trump and Prince Mohammed visited Diriyah’s renovated historical center.

 

The two leaders talked “not just as heads of state,” but as “visionaries and developers,” Mr. Inzerillo said. Mr. Trump was impressed by the number of construction cranes working on the vast site, he added.

 

Saudi officials even debated whether it would be appropriate to present architectural models at the state dinner, he said.

 

“I said, ‘You’re right, you normally wouldn’t do that in a state dinner. It’s not really the normal protocol,’” Mr. Inzerillo recalled. “But that’s because you’re looking at the president of the United States as the president of the United States. You’re not looking at him as a developer.”

 

The models of the massive project were ultimately put on display.

 

The following day, at an investment forum in Riyadh, Mr. Trump heralded what he called “an exhilarating period” in the Arabian Peninsula.

 

“Over the past eight years, Saudi Arabia has proved the critics totally wrong,” he said. He praised the “majestic skyscrapers” that he had seen and “some of the exhibits” Prince Mohammed had shown him, calling them a sign of “amazing genius.”

 

A longstanding relationship

Prince Mohammed is not only Saudi Arabia’s prime minister and heir to the throne, he is also the chairman of every major real estate and infrastructure project owned by the kingdom’s roughly $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, including Diriyah.

 

During Mr. Trump’s first term, the prince cultivated warm relationships with the president and his allies, and was particularly close to the president’s son-in-law and former adviser, Jared Kushner.

 

Those ties proved fruitful for both sides. In 2017, Mr. Trump made Saudi Arabia his first foreign destination as president, and the following year, he became a key defender of Prince Mohammed after Saudi agents killed the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

 

Then, when Mr. Trump left office, the kingdom became a source of new business for his family. LIV Golf, a professional league backed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, has hosted tournaments at the Trump National Doral Golf Club near Miami.

 

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund also contributed $2 billion to Mr. Kushner’s investment fund.

 

Seizing opportunities

Dar has invested in the Trump name for years. Mr. El Chaar has an even longer history: While at another major Mideast developer, he delivered the Trump Organization’s first operational project in the region, a Dubai golf course that opened in 2017.

 

The Trump Organization appears to have prepared for new projects in the Middle East regardless of the 2024 election result.

 

Months before Election Day, two Delaware companies popped up, with names corresponding to Dubai and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One was DT Marks Dubai DG. The other was DT Marks KSA.

 

Those companies appeared in Mr. Trump’s 2024 financial disclosure, with sizable license-fee payments coming from Dar Al Arkan. That included $15.9 million to the company using the Saudi Arabia acronym.

 

In Mr. Trump’s second term, Dar has advertised plans for Trump-branded private members’ clubs in Dubai and Jeddah.

 

In promotional materials, Dar has hailed the concept as “the ultimate destination for the city’s elite.”

 

‘Every Developer’s Biggest Playground’

Built around the ancestral home of the royal family, the Diriyah project spans more than five square miles. Its plan includes 40 hotels, plus offices, retail space and “branded residential units.”

 

A few parts of Diriyah have already opened, but most is still being built. While other Saudi “giga-projects,” including a futuristic new region called Neom, are faltering and behind schedule, Diriyah is advancing rapidly.

 

Mr. Inzerillo said that $4 billion in residential units have been sold, most to Saudi buyers, including Ritz-Carlton and Armani-branded homes.

 

For Dar’s Trump-branded projects in the Gulf — most years away from completion — sales have also begun.

 

Speaking at an event in Riyadh this month, Mr. El Chaar suggested that strong appetite for Trump-branded projects in the Gulf had driven Dar’s deals.

 

Mr. El Chaar has sought to distance the real-estate projects from the political landscape. But the lines between statesmanship and family business have been far from clear, as the state visit this year made apparent.

 

Eric Trump has called the region “every developer’s biggest playground” and signaled particular interest in Diriyah. He and Mr. Kushner are among several Trump extended family members who have visited, Mr. Inzerillo said.

 

Donald Trump Jr. visited Riyadh last month to speak at Prince Mohammed’s annual investment forum. The president’s son called opportunity in the region “spectacular.”

 

“My whole life I was a real estate guy, I did deals all over the world,” Donald Trump Jr. said. Gesturing to Mr. Inzerillo, sitting in the audience, he added, “Jerry, you know that all too well.”

 

“In my world, it’s hard to not bring everything back to real estate,” he said.

 

Eric Lipton contributed reporting.

 

Vivian Nereim is the lead reporter for The Times covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

 

Rebecca R. Ruiz is an investigative reporter for The Times based in London.