# Qatar Simaisma Golf Deal On **May 1, 2025**, [[Qatari Diar]] — the real-estate arm of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund — signed a strategic agreement with the London-listed developer [[Dar Global]] to build **Trump International Golf Club** and **Trump Villas** inside the Simaisma coastal masterplan, about 40 km north of Doha. [[Eric Trump]] attended the signing at Qatari Diar's headquarters in Lusail. It is the [[Trump Organization]]'s first project in [[Qatar]], and it was announced roughly two weeks before President [[Donald Trump]]'s May 2025 Gulf trip and the Qatari government's gift of a Boeing 747-8 for use as Air Force One. ## Why It's in the KB The deal is the cleanest example in the second term of a **foreign-government counterparty paying into the president's family brand**. The Trump Organization's January 2025 ethics pledge barred new deals with foreign governments. Qatari Diar was established in 2005 by the Qatar Investment Authority and is state-owned. Eric Trump's own statement named both Qatari Diar and Dar Global as partners; when reporters raised the pledge, the Trump Organization said its agreement was solely with Dar Global — the private Saudi-rooted developer sitting between the state fund and the Trump name. That intermediary structure is the mechanism, and it is the same one used for the Trump-branded projects in Jeddah, Riyadh, Oman, and Dubai. ## The Structure | Element | Detail | |---|---| | Landowner / master developer | [[Qatari Diar]] (state-owned; chairman Abdullah bin Hamad bin Abdullah Al Attiya, Qatar's minister of municipalities) | | Developer and Trump licensee | [[Dar Global]] (London Stock Exchange-listed; international arm of Saudi Arabia's Dar Al Arkan) | | Brand licensor | [[Trump Organization]] — licensing model, no Trump equity in the land | | Parcel | ~790,000 m² within the ~8 million m² Simaisma masterplan; direct beach access | | Components | 18-hole Trump International Golf Course, Trump golf clubhouse, branded luxury villas | | Masterplan value | ~$5.5 billion for Simaisma as a whole (also includes a "Land of Legends" theme park); the Trump parcel's value and the licensing fee are undisclosed | ## Timeline | Date | Development | |---|---| | Jan 2025 | Trump Organization publishes ethics pledge barring new deals with foreign governments | | Apr 30, 2025 | Reuters reports the deal exclusively ahead of announcement | | May 1, 2025 | Qatari Diar–Dar Global agreement signed in Lusail; Eric Trump attends | | May 11–15, 2025 | Reports of the Qatari 747 gift; Trump's Saudi–Qatar–UAE trip | | May 2025 | Trump Organization tells reporters the agreement is with Dar Global alone | ## The Defense, and the Response Eric Trump: "We are incredibly proud to expand the Trump brand into Qatar," and — on the politics — "This whole region is dependent on a strong America... that's what President Trump wants." [[CREW]]'s Noah Bookbinder: "You want a president making decisions that are in the best interest of the United States, not his bottom line." ## Connections Sits in the [[Trump Family Corruption Ecosystem]] under foreign sovereign [[Emoluments Clauses]] exposure, and on the [[Qatar]] page alongside the $1.2T economic framework and the Air Force One gift, which followed within two weeks. The Vietnam counterpart, announced the same month against the backdrop of tariff negotiations, is the [[Vietnam Hung Yen Golf Deal]]. [[Dar Global]] is the recurring intermediary across the Gulf portfolio. ## See Also - [[Qatar]] - [[Dar Global]] - [[Qatari Diar]] - [[Trump Organization]] - [[Eric Trump]] - [[Emoluments Clauses]] - [[Vietnam Hung Yen Golf Deal]] - [[Trump Family Corruption Ecosystem]] - [[Trump Corruption News Log]]