In the heart of Jerusalem, a few steps from the Supreme Court and the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, the family business of donald trump He saw an opportunity to make money.
Last year, the ‘Trump Organization’ tried to open a luxury hotel at the former headquarters of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, according to people involved in the negotiations, who had not been reported until now, and according to documents reviewed by ‘The New York Times‘.
The proximity of the property to the nexus of government power in that country evokes the hotel that Trump had near the White Housefilled with dignitaries and supporters during his presidency.
According to the documents, the company also considered converting a skyscraper in Tel Aviv, Israel, into another ‘Trump’ branded hotel. That tower, which will be covered in glass and steel, is located near the Israeli army headquarters and will have the largest number of hotel rooms in the country when its construction is completed.
Eric Trumpwho runs the family business, entered into negotiations long after his father announced his most recent presidential bid in November 2022, interviews and documents show. And although neither of the two possible agreements has been closed, the talks have not been resumed since the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023the ‘Trump Organization’ continues to express your interest in opening a hotel in that country.
The company’s activities on Israeli soil highlight the long-standing ethical concerns raised by the mix of financial and political fortunes of the former president, this time in a country at war located at the center of controversial American and world politics.
Which side is Trump on in the Israel conflict?
The former president has made no secret of which side he is on in Israel’s conflict with its neighbors. This summer, he met with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence in Florida, and has branded those who call for an end to American support for Israel’s war as “pro-Hamas thugs” and “jihad sympathizers.”
As president, Trump acknowledged Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordered the US embassy moved there, angering Arab and European leaders for fear it would fuel violence. Even before starting his political career, he said Israel was “one of my favorite places in the world” as he pursued a real estate deal there.
In interviews, Eric Trump confirmed that the company had serious conversations last year to open hotels in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and added that the Trump Organization decided to withdraw after the Hamas attack.
“Without a doubt, we would have closed the deal if not for what happened on October 7,” he said, adding that building a hotel after the attack “would have seemed trivial and insensitive to the horrors the country and the region were experiencing.” But he stated that the Trump Organization would “definitely” finalize an agreement with Israel “when the current situation that we are seeing on television every day is resolved.”
The Trump flag in the Middle East
For nearly two decades, the Trumps have tried to plant their flag in Israel. This time, They planned to partner with two Florida businessmenboth political supporters of the former president, who would lease the hotels in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Both properties belong to ‘Nitsba Group’, an Israeli real estate company.
According to Eric TrumpIf the agreements are finalized, ‘Nitsba’ would continue to own the properties, while the ‘Trump Organization’ would license the Trump name and manage the hotels, as has generally happened elsewhere. It is not known how these Florida men and their company, ‘Lockwood Development Partners’, plan to finance the projects.
Gil Eshela commercial real estate agent Tel Aviv who put Nitsba and Lockwood in touch and helped lead negotiations, said the Trumps planned to start in Jerusalem before a possible expansion to Tel Aviv.
Before they suspended negotiations, the two sides “had agreed on the price and almost everything” related to the Jerusalem property, said Haim Tsuff, chairman of the majority shareholder of the Nitsba Group, adding that the Trump Organization had even talked about the interior finishes, including the furniture. Not much is known about what happened next.
Although Eric Trump blamed the stalled negotiations on the war, Israelis who participated in the talks say they were told something different. As mentioned, the talks were abruptly interrupted a few weeks before the Hamas attack, when ‘Lockwood’ stated in a video call with ‘Nitsba’ that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign prevented them from moving forward.
Eric Trump was not present for the call and did not respond to questions related to it. But in an email sent to the Times, Lockwood’s representative confirmed that the company “referred to the cancellation of negotiations as a ethical issue that had to do with Donald Trumpas he was increasingly close to being considered the Republican candidate,” and that “the ‘Trump Organization’ did not want politics” to interfere with its private business affairs.
However, that explanation contradicts other recent agreements. The company’s testing of the waters in Israel reflected a broader push to cultivate business abroad after he left office in 2021 and is reminiscent of his expansive business activity during his 2016 run for president.
The financial and political fortunes of Donald Trump
Now that Trump is campaigning again, his company has struck a deal to put his name on a new tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. On the same day in July that he accepted the Republican nomination, he announced plans to establish another Trump Tower in DubaiUnited Arab Emirates. And just this week, the Trump Organization announced a hotel and golf course project in Vietnam.
The company also partnered to host golf tournaments with Saudi-backed ‘LIV Golf’ and licensed the Trump name to a Saudi company developing luxury villas and a golf course in Oman, before the former president started his campaign.
Trump has criticized his Democratic rivals in the past for their relatives’ foreign companies. For example, he accused Hillary Clinton of trying to “benefit from public office” through the ‘Clinton Foundation’, run by his family, and attacked the foreign business ties of the president’s son Joe BidenHunter, stating that “Joe Biden is committed.”
However, the recent dealings of the ‘Trump Organization’ in the Middle East indicate that Trump could abandon his previous ethics promisesin case of occupying the White House again. After winning the presidency in 2016, his company halted new international deals, hired an outside ethics adviser and made annual payments to the U.S. Treasury Department to offset profits made by foreign government officials at the company’s U.S. hotels. .
“I understood the point: You can’t build the tallest building in Tel Aviv and try to negotiate peace in the Middle East,” Eric Trump declared in an interview at the time.
But in recent interviews, he indicated a possible change of heart. “During the first term we did everything imaginable to avoid any appearance of wrongdoing and, frankly, we were crushed anyway,” Eric Trump noted, arguing that the presidency had cost his father “an absolute fortune.”
“We can’t sit back forever and I won’t,” he added. “I am not part of the government; “I’m in private industry.”
Although the company’s overseas business was reduced during the Trump presidency, there were few restrictions on the ‘Trump Organization’ domestically. Many people who had business with the government They spent lavishly at Mar-a-Lago and in the Trump hotel in Washingtonwhich was later sold.
The ambitions of Eric Trump in Israel They gained strength on a trip he made to that country in February 2023. The Israeli media covered the visit and he later hinted at his purpose in an interview given to a New York magazine for the Jewish community.
“There are a couple of really big things about to happen in Israel,” he said at the time, adding: “We are working on something that I think will make them very proud.”
Still in August, an email reviewed by the Times shows, Lockwood contacted a Nitsba executive to convey Eric Trump’s desire to resume talks “when the time is right.”
Eric Trump has spoken with other Israeli developers, but there is no detailed information on the matter.
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