Money Grab/Charge for access to the president
Trump’s company launches a golf resort inside Saudi Arabia’s Diriyah megaproject
On January 11, 2026, Dar Global and the Trump Organization launched a Trump-branded golf course, hotel and residences at Wadi Safar in Diriyah, outside Riyadh. Dar Global’s chief executive valued it and the Jeddah tower together at $10 billion. The Trump family earns licensing fees and puts in no money.
What happened
Diriyah is the Saudi state’s showcase development on the edge of Riyadh, the birthplace of the Saudi royal house. The New York Times reported it as a $63 billion project and others as $50 billion. It is master-planned by the state-owned Diriyah Company.
On January 11, 2026, Dar Al Arkan, its London-listed international arm Dar Global and the Trump Organization announced Trump International Golf Club, Wadi Safar. The site covers 2.6 million square metres. Plans include a Trump International Hotel, an 18-hole championship course with a members-only clubhouse, and Trump-branded mansions in Rayana, the district’s gated community, with completion targeted for 2029.
It is the first of two Riyadh projects the partners announced in December 2024. It sits in what Dar Global’s chief executive calls a $10 billion Saudi pipeline with the Trump Organization, alongside the $1 billion Trump Plaza Jeddah launched the same week. The Trump Organization licenses the name and manages the hospitality for fees, which were not disclosed. It does not build or finance the project.
Who benefited
The Trump Organization collects licensing and management fees on a project inside a state-owned development without putting up capital. Saudi Arabia produced about $9 million of Trump’s 2025 licensing income before this project was announced. The president sets U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia.
Who wanted something
Saudi Arabia had a $142 billion arms package, a pending civil nuclear deal and the question of U.S. security guarantees before the administration. Dar Global is the developer, and behind it stands the Saudi state, whose Public Investment Fund owns Diriyah Company and controls the master plan the Trump project sits in.
Who lost out
The land is the Saudi state’s, and the developer’s fortunes depend on the Saudi state. The president’s family is paid by that developer. Anyone who needs U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia to be made on its merits cannot tell where the public interest ends and the family’s begins.
Why it matters
In 2017 the Trump Organization promised to do no new foreign deals while Trump was in office. In his second term the biggest deals are in the Gulf, the counterparties are governments, and this one is built on land the Saudi state owns. Federal law does not bar a president from profiting this way; it relies on him choosing not to.
Sources Golf Business NewsDar Global / Dar Al Arkan press release via Kyodo News PR Wire (primary)Gulf ConstructionNewsweekU.S. Office of Government Ethics (primary)