Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation intersects with the business interests of the first billionaire US president. Ties between entities controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as other Saudi companies, and President Donald Trump and his family are well documented: two Trump-branded developments are planned for Jeddah, as well as two projects in Riyadh, with more potential real estate licensing agreements in the offing. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund invested $2 billion in Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners after Trump’s first term, and increasingly, there are crypto ventures with Gulf ties, despite tokenized trading being restricted in the kingdom.
Real estate developer Dar Global is a key regional partner to Trump businesses and has recently hinted at new deals in Saudi Arabia’s gigaprojects, Al-Monitor reported. One possibility: On Trump’s visit to the kingdom in May, the CEO of Diriyah told Semafor that the luxury development on Riyadh’s outskirts appealed to the president “as a developer.”