Developments in countries like India, Oman, and Serbia raise conflict-of-interest concerns
During Donald Trump’s second term as US president, developers across eight foreign countries are actively planning, building, and selling 19 new Trump-branded real estate projects, raising concerns over conflicts of interest between his presidential duties and personal business interests.
The developments include hotels, golf courses, and residential towers, according to a review of press releases, media coverage, and publicly available data from the Trump Organization. Some have been in planning stages for years, but most are now advancing under Trump’s renewed time in office. If completed, the developments would nearly triple the number of Trump-branded properties operating internationally.
The scale and timing of these projects are drawing scrutiny from government ethics groups, who warn that Trump’s financial stake in overseas ventures could undermine US foreign policy.
“In each country where Trump has business interests, especially those where he has new properties under development, he will know that decisions he makes as president could impact his bottom line,” the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said in its report. “Likewise, foreign officials in those countries will have an opportunity to provide special treatment to the president of the United States, or to punish the president for decisions they don’t like.”
Ten days before Trump returned to office, the Trump Organization released an updated ethics plan. Unlike the version issued during his first term, this new document removed the previous restriction on entering new foreign deals. That omission effectively allows the president’s company, still privately owned by Trump and a source of personal profit, to expand its business abroad while he holds the highest office.
The plan does restrict doing business with foreign governments directly, but CREW said that limitation falls short of preventing conflicts.
“Many Trump developments have unnervingly close relationships to foreign governments where they’re being developed,” the watchdog group stated.
In Oman, a Trump-branded hotel, golf course, and residences are being developed on government-owned land. A government-run tourism agency is a partner in the project. A separate Trump hotel in Serbia is also being built on land owned by the Serbian government, on a site that has become politically charged and the subject of recent protests.
In Indonesia, the government recently ordered one of Trump’s business partners to halt work on a project that includes Trump-branded elements due to environmental concerns. That development had previously been designated a “special economic zone,” granting it tax and regulatory benefits.
Trump’s business connections are especially deep in Saudi Arabia and India. The same Saudi firm partnering on his Oman project is also involved in developments in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In India, business partners are actively developing eight Trump-branded projects, several of which are expected to open or begin selling units during his presidency.
Other projects are underway in Vietnam and Uruguay.
In most cases, the Trump Organization is not directly building these properties but instead licenses the Trump name to developers in exchange for ongoing fees. Some projects also involve management agreements. The exact terms of these deals remain unknown, as Trump has refused to release his tax returns, the first US president in four decades to do so, making it difficult to assess the full extent of his financial interests abroad.
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Ethics experts say the risk lies not only in Trump’s personal gain, but in how his business relationships could shape global diplomacy during his second term. While the Trump Organization has framed the deals as private-sector business, CREW’s report warns that the sheer scope and political context of the projects present “new and unprecedented ethics issues.”
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