Despite President Trump stepping aside from the day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization, the company’s ventures, particularly in overseas markets, have not slowed down. This coming Saturday, Trump’s progeny, Eric and Donald Jr., are scheduled to attend the inauguration of the Trump International Golf Club in the United Arab Emirates, as confirmed by Kim Benza, a representative of the Trump Organization. This golf course has been under development since 2013 and is part of an ambitious development that plans to include a series of 100 opulent villas on the outskirts of Dubai. The organization’s website promotes the golf course as surpassing all expectations, while the clubhouse is described as “possessing enough gold to satisfy even the most discerning Dubai resident,” a detail highlighted by Gulf News after their visit to the site. The Trump International Golf Club is one of two luxury resort projects in Dubai associated with the Trump brand. The ventures are collaborations with Damac Properties, led by the wealthy Hussain Sajwani, who has been in business with Trump for nearly ten years. Remarkably, just before his presidential inauguration, Trump mentioned he had declined a $2billion deal by Damac Properties to develop yet another golf course in Dubai because he didn’t ”want to take advantage of something.” Trump has been criticized for not divesting his family business. While he has moved his holdings into a revocable trust, he has not given up ownership and the trustees are his sons. Eric and Donald Jr. are overseeing resorts still underway in places such as the Philippines and Indonesia. Trump Hotels also is planning a major expansion of luxury properties in the United States, as well as opening up a line of moderately priced hotels called Scion. Those expansions not only raise ethical questions about conflicts between Trump’s role as president and as business owner but are generating concerns about costs to the U. S. taxpayers. The Trump sons get Secret Service protection, and their foreign business trips can be enormously expensive for their protective service, according to The Washington Post.
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