Trump Family Hauls in Hundreds of Millions Through Potentially Conflicted Foreign Real Estate Deals
NEWS & RESEARCH
The Trump Organization, headed by President Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, has made deals for Trump-branded hotels and other businesses on three continents, many of them involving “foreign governments or firms backed by nations' wealth funds,” making the Trump family millions during Trump’s second term. The deals include numerous projects in the United Arab Emirates, which “has become a hub for the Trump Organization’s international expansion,” a golf club and villa project partially backed by the Qatari government, a resort in Vietnam that pushed farmers off their land, and a planned “Trump Plaza” in Saudi Arabia.
SOURCES:Forbes | New York Times | Washington Post
ANALYSIS & OPINION
According to an analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Trump’s income from foreign properties during his first term, “totaled at least $149 million…and yet it appears set to pale in comparison to his expected income in his second term, based on his reported 2024 income and the slew of new developments announced since 2024.” Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University told PBS that the deals are huge conflicts of interest, "I don't think there's any line right now between policy decisions and political calculations and the interest of the Trump family."
HOW TO FIX IT
Federal action:
Mandate that Trump's investments go into a blind trust over which he has no control.
Amend the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to require presidents and vice presidents to disclose and divest all assets that might present a conflict of interest in violation of the Emoluments Clauses by passing the Presidential Conflicts of Interest Accountability Act of 2026 and other conflict of interest reforms
Pass resolutions demanding that Trump comply with the Constitution’s Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clause.
Legislation:H.Res.1186 (Resolution) | H.R.7207 - Presidential Conflicts of Interest Accountability Act
