Over the last year, as Donald Trump and Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman conducted nuclear negotiations, Trump’s private business interests moved on a parallel track.
The deal: a Trump-branded hotel, golf and residential project inside a Saudi development helmed by the crown prince. Hints of the arrangement have emerged at various points over the last two years. Only now is the fuller picture coming into view.
In December 2024, one month after Trump’s election, a Saudi firm named Dar Global announced that it would launch two Trump-branded developments in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital city.
Six months later, President Trump embarked on a major international trip as he settled into his second term. He flew into Riyadh on May 13, 2025, escorted by a fleet of Saudi F-15 fighter jets. Prince Mohammed greeted him on a purple carpet at the tarmac. Later, Trump joined a lunch with a lineup of Saudi and American businessmen, including Yousef Al Shelash, chairman of the parent company to Dar Global, the firm that had announced deals in Riyadh with the Trump Organization. Jerry Inzerillo was there, too. He runs the Diriyah Company, the crown-prince-chaired developer behind the massive project on the edge of Riyadh.
That evening, Trump went to Diriyah, the ancestral seat of the Saudi state. The production was not subtle: Men on Arabian horses lined the road, holding Saudi and American flags. Trump surveyed the site and studied a model of Diriyah.
“Amazing job,” he said.
Six months later, in November 2025, a Trump representative created a pair of new companies—DT Diriyah Hotel Manager LLC and DT Diriyah Hotel Member Corp. Together, they gave the president an 80% stake in a hotel management agreement in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. His family members—presumably sons Eric and Don Jr.—took the remaining 20%.
Technically, Trump’s partner in the hotel deal was a Dar Global company. But the Diriyah Company, the firm chaired by Prince Mohammed, developed the master plan for the area.
The New York Times reported in November that the Trump Organization was in talks for a development connected to Diriyah. Inzerillo, who also serves as vice chairman of the Forbes Travel Guide, told the Times: “Nothing announced yet, but soon to be.”
He suggested the president’s May tour had an impact. “It turned out to be a good stroke of luck and maybe a little bit clever of us to say, ‘Okay, let’s appeal to him as a developer,’” Inzerillo told the Times. “He loved it.”
Reached for comment, the White House offered its standard response. “There are no conflicts of interest,” said deputy press secretary Anna Kelly. A Trump Organization representative, Kimberly Benza, said the deal did not come together at the same time as the president was discussing a nuclear agreement.
Days after the Trump entities were formed, and Inzerillo comments appeared in the Times, Prince Mohammed arrived at the White House. The Saudi flag flew next to the Stars and Stripes to welcome him. He and the president had a full agenda. On it: an agreement that would advance Saudi Arabia’s nuclear-energy ambitions.
Two months later, in January, the Trump Organization made a Diriyah deal official. The announcement described a hotel, residences and a golf project. It made no mention of the crown prince’s role.
“We are proud to expand our presence with this landmark development,” Eric Trump said in the press release, written like any other canned luxury real-estate announcement. “We look forward to creating a destination that complements the rich heritage of the region while delivering a global standard of luxury living.”
Around the same time, two more entities appeared in Delaware: DT Marks KSA Kings Road LLC and DT Marks KSA Kings Road Member Corp. Neither showed up on the financial disclosure report that President Trump filed last month, which appears to only include assets created by the end of 2025.
Their names, however, fit a clear pattern. Trump already had a few companies connected to Saudi projects, including DT Marks KSA LLC and DT Marks KSA Member Corp. The former paid the president $9.2 million last year. The DT prefix is also attached to Donald Trump’s licensing entities in Indonesia, Oman, India and Vietnam, among other places.
In April, two more entities were incorporated in Delaware, DT Diriyah Golf Manager LLC and DT Diriyah Golf Manager Member Corp. They did not appear on Trump’s financial disclosure, either.
Given the names, it seems likely they are connected to the Diriyah project. It’s not clear when these new entities will start receiving funds, or whether they already have. Similar deals in the United Arab Emirates paid out $5 million apiece to the president the same year his representatives created companies connected to them.
Trump has long done business with Saudi entities and citizens, but never quite like this. He bought a yacht originally commissioned by a Saudi arms dealer in 1987, then offloaded it to a Saudi prince in the early Nineties. In 2001, he sold the 45th floor of Trump World Tower to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for $12 million, according to an analysis of real-estate records.
He was still talking about such dealmaking 14 years later, when he first campaigned for president. “Saudi Arabia, and I get along great with all of them—they buy apartments from me,” Trump said. “Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
He must like them even more now.
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