Trump’s Gulf Dealmaker Helps Family Cash In on Property Boom

To get a sense of the Trump Organization’s business ambitions in the Middle East, look no further than Ziad El Chaar.

The low-key chief executive officer of Dar Global Plc has been the Trump family’s go-to-guy in the region for over a decade. In recent months, he orchestrated deals with the US president-elect’s eponymous firm to build villas in Oman and new towers in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. 

As the Trump Organization ramps up its push overseas, few regions offer more opportunity than the Gulf. It’s home to one of the world’s hottest property markets, Dubai, where luxury house prices have surged in recent years. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is building luxury resorts and thousands of new homes as part of a trillion-dollar economic transformation plan. 

But it’s also a region where the Trump family’s business activities are likely to draw particularly close scrutiny since regional governments typically keep a close hold on business in their countries. 

Trump business organization

“We’re dealing with Trump the business organization, not with Trump politics,” El Chaar said in an interview in Dubai. 

Before 2016, as an executive at Dubai’s Damac Properties, he worked directly with Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka to help launch their first development in the city. Those direct dealings have since ceased, El Chaar says and he now liaises with Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., both executive vice presidents at the Trump Organization. 

Still, the distinction between Trump’s roles as politician and businessman can be hard to parse. For instance, while the president-elect resigned from his position at Trump Organization before his first term, he continues to own the firm. 

Those blurred lines have drawn scrutiny from critics about potential conflicts of interests. Representatives for Trump and the Trump Organization didn’t comment. 

Dar Global, for its part, hasn’t been shying away from its links to Trump. 

Earlier this year, its website flaunted its ties to the president-elect, including a montage featuring Eric touring an arid hilly site overlooking the azure waters of Oman. Elsewhere, an undated video showed a smiling Donald Trump standing with Yousef Al-Shelash, the Saudi tycoon who’s chairman of Dar Global’s parent company.

Born in Lebanon, El Chaar, 55, is an old hand at navigating Gulf real estate. He recalls brainstorming with senior management at Damac a decade ago on ways to lure property buyers to a stretch of desert outside Dubai. They decided that anchoring a housing development around a Trump golf course would do it.

Trump later flew in — by private jet, with Ivanka by his side. An international designer was hired to build an 18-hole golf course, constructed beside a Trump-branded housing development. 

Damac continues to operate that project, from which the Trump Organization drew at least $4.3 million in licensing and management fees in the 16 months from January 2023, disclosures show. 

El Chaar remembers Trump walking the length of the course tossing out orders: “Change this, change that, put the clock here.” 

Selling parcels of land 

He took the Trump relationship with him upon moving to Dar Global, which was little known internationally until it listed in London last year. Its parent company, Dar Al Arkan, trades in Saudi Arabia, where for years the bulk of its business involved selling parcels of land to locals.

Under its agreement with the president-elect’s company, Dar Global bankrolls construction and land purchases. It pays the Trump Organization fees for use of the brand as well as a portion of revenue generated from sales.

The US firm is deeply involved in the minutiae of each project, according to El Chaar. “There is a very big interest in what they do, not just putting a stamp.” 

The two announced a flurry of projects in the months leading up to the election. The Middle East has seen a construction boom as expatriates from around the world move to the region and governments seek to diversify away from fossil fuels.

In Saudi Arabia, one key aspect of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic plan is a massive housebuilding program intended to get more Saudis owning their own homes. That’s been good for developers, who have benefitted from incentives to boost construction and from a flood of subsidies offered to buyers to help make mortgages more affordable.

“Real estate development is well suited to countries seeking to influence Trump because governments are often naturally involved,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a nonprofit that scrutinizes executive branch appointees.