By Pesha Magid
RIYADH (Reuters) - The Trump Organization plans to build a Trump Tower in the Saudi capital Riyadh as part of a real estate expansion in the region including in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, Eric Trump, the U.S. president-elect's son told Reuters on Thursday.
Outlining two new projects in Riyadh in partnership with Dubai-based luxury developer Dar Global, The Trump Organization executive vice president declined to give details.
"What I'll tell you is one of them will definitely be a tower," Trump said in an interview, adding that his company plans to further expand its partnership with Dar Global across the Gulf region including a new project in Abu Dhabi.
"We'll probably be in Abu Dhabi in the next year or so," Trump said, a day after the two companies unveiled plans for a glittering gold Trump Tower in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.
London-listed Dar Global's chief executive said the other new joint project planned in Riyadh is a Trump Golf community similar to one launched in Oman in 2022.
"We're hoping to do one tower and one golf community," Ziad El Chaar told Reuters in an interview.
Dar Global, the international arm of Saudi Arabia's Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company, has agreed a number of deals with The Trump Organization, including plans for Trump towers in Jeddah and Dubai, along with the Oman project.
The two organizations did not indicate the value of the projects, but El Chaar compared the value to the $530 million Trump Tower in Jeddah and the Trump Golf community in Oman, which he said cost around $2.66 billion.
Donald Trump fostered close ties with Gulf states during his first term, including Saudi Arabia, which has invested $2 billion in a firm belonging to Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and former aide, incorporated after Trump left office.
Other close Trump allies also maintained close business ties in the Gulf since he left office in 2021.
When Trump first took office in 2017, he retained ownership of the Trump Organization but placed control of the sprawling business empire in the hands of his sons Eric and Donald Jr., breaking with U.S. precedent by not divesting his businesses or putting them into a blind trust.
This raised conflict of interest concerns and Democratic congressional investigators later found that businesses tied to the president received at least $7.8 million in foreign payments from 20 countries during his four years in the White House.
"I have no interaction with Washington, D.C. I want no interaction with Washington, D.C." Eric Trump said in response to a question on potential conflicts of interest, adding they would follow the same practices as during Trump's first term.
"I think we are going to navigate that very smartly, very well, no different than we did in 2016," he said.
His father's position meant that The Trump Organization would avoid opening up businesses with countries involved in active conflicts such as Russia, Ukraine and Israel, or where the U.S. is considering imposing heavy tariffs like China.
"We could have done two of the biggest buildings in Israel," Eric Trump said, adding: "They were slated to be done and then obviously October 7 came around, you couldn't do it. You just have to be sensitive to what was happening."
($1 = 3.7573 riyals)