A new Trump Tower of corruption
President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was a top White House official during Trump's first term. After exiting the White House in 2021, Kushner launched a new private equity firm, Affinity Partners, and announced he was seeking to raise $7 billion. Kushner had no experience in private equity, and his most significant business experience was nearly bankrupting his family's real estate company.
Who would be interested in giving Kushner billions of dollars? Kushner raised $2 billion from the government of Saudi Arabia through their Public Investment Fund (PIF). The PIF committee that screens investments recommended rejecting Kushner's proposal, citing "the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management" and "excessive" fees. The committee's recommendation, however, was overruled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who Kushner formed a friendship with during his time in the White House. Kushner helped MBS manage the fallout after United States intelligence agencies determined MBS ordered the brutal murder of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi. To date, Kushner has raised $4.6 billion, including additional funds from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
From its inception, this arrangement was an ethical morass. Kushner is on the payroll of foreign governments and although he does not have a formal position in the second Trump administration, admitted that he still serves as an advisor to his father-in-law.
Things just got much worse.
Days before Trump's inauguration, Kushner partnered with his father-in-law's company, the Trump Organization, to develop a Trump-branded luxury hotel and apartment complex in Belgrade, Serbia. Affinity Partners is functioning as a vehicle for foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, to enrich the President of the United States.
In an interview, Kushner insisted that this was all on the up-and-up. “We talked with several brands in the past year,” Kushner told Bloomberg in an interview. "I thought the tower would make a tremendous Trump Tower, so I spoke to Eric [Trump] about it, and he was very excited. So we’ll be bringing them in as our hotel partner.”
The development will be known as Trump Tower Belgrade and will be built on a former military site leased to Affinity Partners by the Serbian government. The complex will have 175 hotel rooms and sell 1,500 residences.
In October 2024, well before Trump Belgrade was announced, Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote to former Attorney General Merrick Garland and urged him to investigate Kushner's "apparent ongoing efforts to sell political influence to the highest foreign bidder."
Kushner rejected the suggestion that he was doing anything inappropriate. “I’ve lived through a lot of scrutiny in the past few years," he said. "I’m not a stranger to it. I’m just going to do what’s right.”
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Most media ignores Saudi government funding of new Trump tower
Bloomberg and Semafor were the only two major media outlets that covered Kushner’s new partnership with the Trump Organization. Foreign governments financing a major development by a company owned by the future president days before the inauguration is newsworthy. But it has merited no coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, or other major outlets.
The same outlets have covered related issues involving other politicians much differently. During the 2016 election, for example, the media extensively covered how foreign government donations to the Clinton Foundation could create a conflict for Hillary Clinton if she won the presidency.
A Popular Information analysis found that the New York Times published 79 articles that covered or referenced foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation between January 1, 2015, and Election Day 2016. Over the same period, the Washington Post published dozens of similar articles.
A key difference was money donated to the Clinton Foundation benefited charitable causes while the Saudi money, funneled through Kushner, benefits Trump personally. Further, the payments to the Clinton Foundation largely occurred when Clinton was not in public office. Trump’s company will be receiving money sourced from foreign governments while he is president.
The Trump Organization's global ambitions
Trump Tower Belgrade is not the only foreign business deal that the Trump Organization has been involved in over the last few months.
In December, two new developments in Saudi Arabia were announced. Another real estate developer, DarGlobal, will own the sites, but pay the Trump Organization to use Trump branding. The Trump Organization will also work with DarGlobal on another project in the United Arab Emirates.
In October, the Trump Organization announced a partnership with a Vietnamese real estate developer to build a $1.5 billion golf course and hotel. Vietnam, which is the US trading partner with the fourth-highest trade surplus, could be heavily impacted if Trump imposes steep tariffs on the country’s exports to the US.
On January 10, the Trump Organization released an ethics statement outlining how it will seek to avoid conflicts of interest. The organization released a similar statement just before Trump took office for the first time in 2017.
The most glaring difference between Trump’s 2017 ethics statement and his current one is how they handle foreign business deals. In 2017, the ethics statement prohibited "without exception—new foreign deals during the duration of President-Elect Trump’s Presidency," including "any new deals with respect to the use of the 'Trump' brand or any trademark, trade name, or marketing intangibles associated with The Trump Organization or Donald J. Trump in any foreign jurisdictions." It also prohibited transactions with "with a foreign country, agency, or instrumentality thereof, including a sovereign wealth fund, foreign government official, or member of a royal family."
The current ethics statement does not include any restrictions on "foreign deals." Since real estate ventures like the new Trump Tower in Serbia require extensive government permitting to be completed, this could give foreign governments leverage over the president. Neither the Trump administration nor the Trump Organization have explained why that restriction will not be maintained during Trump's second term.
The current ethics statement does prohibit "new material transactions or contracts with a foreign government." But Kushner's private equity fund creates a glaring loophole. Kushner has raised most of his money from foreign governments and now is partnering with the Trump organization on new deals.
Since his first term, Trump has diversified his business interests, providing more options for foreign influence. Trump is the largest shareholder of a publicly traded social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social. Foreign governments seeking to curry favor with Trump could buy advertising on Truth Social or purchase stock in the company, driving up its price. Trump's new crypto ventures, World Liberty Financial, and his meme coin, provide even more opaque ways for foreign entities to buy influence.
The corruption is so great one feels like ignoring it. What can we do? I was saying to friends yesterday that the most obvious goal of the Trump presidency is to use it to surpass Putin and Musk in becoming the wealthiest person in the world. In fact, this is true of his family, who are all primed to make whatever money they can off of his presidency.
Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat has pointed out that illiberal leaders operate like this, grifting without caring if they make their nations broke and down and out. Trump has no interest in governance beyond doing what makes him money. Upon reading the education agenda alone of Project 2025, I said, this is a formula for turning the US into a third world country. Here we go. Nothing Trump does surprises me, only that so many people of little means do not aspire for more from their president.
It's appalling. The #DirtyOldRapist and his clan of grifters and band of predators will rape and pillage their way through the next four years. Thank you Judd for getting this all on the record. That matters.