They insist, in Eric\u2019s words, that there is a \u201chuge wall\u201d between this moneymaking and their father\u2019s position as the most powerful man alive. \u201cNothing I do has anything to do with the White House,\u201d Eric told CNN<\/a> recently.<\/p>\n But Kristofer Harrison, a senior foreign police official under President George W Bush who now runs an anti-corruption organisation called the Dekleptocracy Project, is among those accusing the Trumps of operating a \u201cpay to play\u201d system that benefits those who do business with the president\u2019s family. Such an approach could be manipulated, he said, especially by rival powers such as China. He said: \u201cTrump has made authoritarians\u2019 wildest dreams come true.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite allegations \u2013 denied by the White House \u2013 of conflicts of interest, no explicit quid pro quos have been proven. But the Trumps\u2019 business interests are raising questions about convictions that have been quashed, sensitive technologies transferred, tariffs eased, alliances forged. Should any of this give the appearance of abuse of public office for private gain \u2013 commonly known as corruption \u2013 ethics experts fear it invites other rulers to do the same.<\/p>\n In Trump\u2019s first term, the chief concern was whether foreign rulers would take expensive suites at Trump\u2019s Washington hotel as a way of putting money in his pocket. He pledged<\/a> that there would be no family business deals abroad. That pledge has now been ditched<\/a>. And although the president has put his stakes in the family\u2019s businesses in a trust, his financial disclosures<\/a> show profits still flow to him.<\/p>\n The Trumps\u2019 most natural allies \u2013 first in business, now also in politics \u2013 have long been the rulers of the Gulf\u2019s petro-monarchies, who see no distinction between their states\u2019 interests and their families\u2019.<\/p>\n Since last year, the Trumps\u2019 business in the region has accelerated. A golf course in Oman; Dubai apartments going on sale. Chuck Schumer, the Democrats\u2019 leader in the Senate, said Trump\u2019s trip to the Middle East in May seemed \u201cless like a presidential visit and more like a personal business venture\u201d.<\/p>\n In Qatar, a golf resort deal with a state company in April was followed the next month by the gift of a \u201cflying palace\u201d for Trump to use as Air Force One<\/a>, then in October he committed US troops to defend the tiny Gulf state<\/a>. In Saudi Arabia, where new golf and hotel projects are already under way, news in November of yet another potential venture \u2013 in a development overseen by the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman \u2013 emerged days before Trump agreed to sell F-35 fighter jets to the kingdom.<\/p>\n Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law and sometime diplomatic envoy, said recently<\/a>: \u201cWhat people call conflicts of interests \u2026 I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world.\u201d The Saudis have given his fund billions.<\/p>\n Asked to comment for this article, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said: \u201cThe media\u2019s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public\u2019s distrust in what they read. Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben Rhodes, who was Barack Obama\u2019s deputy national security adviser, argues that the Trumps\u2019 approach amounts to \u201cnothing more than an old-fashioned grift tethered to a superpower\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incalculable what damage we are not seeing,\u201d said Rhodes. \u201cCorruption,\u201d he believes, \u201cis now the norm in geopolitics.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2019Atmosphere of lynching\u2019Protesters in Serbia objecting to the fast-tracking of a Trump building in Belgrade. Photograph: Darko Vojinovi\u0107\/AP<\/p>\n On a foggy Belgrade morning a fortnight after Trump\u2019s triumph last November, Estela Radonjic Zivkov arrived at her office to find two officers from Serbia\u2019s state security agency waiting for her. Zivkov is the deputy head of the institute that oversees the protection of historical sites. \u201cThe work I do is deeply rewarding,\u201d she said. \u201cIt allows me to preserve cultural heritage in the most meaningful and responsible way.\u201d<\/p>\n The agents introduced themselves politely but gave her a warning: don\u2019t challenge the decision to demolish one of the capital\u2019s most resonant sites to make way for a hotel and tower. The building in question was the former Yugoslav army headquarters, bombed in the Nato offensive to end Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107\u2019s genocide of Bosnian Muslims.<\/p>\n The agents made clear there was a \u201cstate interest\u201d in the project. An agreement seen by the Guardian designates it as one of \u201cspecial significance\u201d. These were no ordinary developers. The Trump Tower Belgrade, a $500m (\u00a3378m) hotel and apartment building, would bring \u201cunrivalled luxury\u201d to the Serbian capital.<\/p>\n Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, the authoritarian former Milo\u0161evi\u0107 propagandist who has ruled Serbia since 2017, needed allies. Mass protests against corruption<\/a> were growing. His years cultivating Vladimir Putin had left few friends in the west. But he had some. Jared Kushner had visited months earlier to get the project going<\/a>. It just needed official approval.<\/p>\n Quick GuideContact Tom Burgis about this storyShow If you have something to share on this subject you can contact Tom using one of the following methods.<\/p>\n Email (not secure)<\/p>\n If you don’t need a high level of security or confidentiality you can email tom.burgis@theguardian.com.<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS<\/a>\/Android<\/a>) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019.<\/p>\n To send a message to Tom please choose the \u2018UK Investigations\u2019 team.<\/p>\n SecureDrop and other secure methods<\/p>\n If you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finally, our guide at theguardian.com\/tips<\/a>\u00a0lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration: Guardian Design \/ Rich Cousins<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n When the agents turned up at Zivkov\u2019s office, she found the security service\u2019s intervention in cultural matters \u201cunusual and worrying\u201d. Ignoring their warning, she spoke out, but to no avail. The site\u2019s protection was annulled. In March, Don Jr flew in for a \u201ccordial conversation\u201d, as Vu\u010di\u0107 put it, \u201cabout bilateral relations between Serbia and the USA\u201d. They chatted warmly on Don\u2019s podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n But then Trump Tower Belgrade was thrown into doubt. Mladen Nenadi\u0107, the chief organised crime prosecutor, arrested the head of the heritage institute, who confessed to forging paperwork cancelling the site\u2019s protected status. The investigation progressed and a former official implicated senior Vu\u010di\u0107 allies.<\/p>\n The regime has fought back with a state media vendetta against the prosecutor, who has also charged an ex-minister in a separate case. In early November, the national prosecutors\u2019 office rebuked Vu\u010di\u0107<\/a> for comments about \u201ccorrupt gangs\u201d of prosecutors bringing \u201cfabricated cases\u201d, saying the president was \u201ctrying to exert unauthorised influence\u201d on the investigation by creating an \u201catmosphere of lynching\u201d.<\/p>\n On 7 November, Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s supporters in parliament passed a law to smooth the progress of the Trump Tower. That Trump\u2019s family is getting special treatment seems beyond doubt; what is less clear is what, if anything, the Serbian regime has got in return.<\/p>\n Sini\u0161a Mali, a finance minister and key Vu\u010di\u0107 ally, said: \u201cRegarding relations with the new US administration, it is obvious that the [Trump real estate] project had no bearing on recent policy decisions.\u201d Serbia\u2019s 35% rate is at the high end of Trump\u2019s tariffs. In October, the US placed sanctions on the Russian oil company that supplies most of Serbia\u2019s petrol. Allegations of \u201cundue influence\u201d, Mali told the Guardian, were unsupported by evidence.<\/p>\n Among Serbia\u2019s neighbours are other fragile democracies inside and outside the EU, such as Romania and Albania. In recent months, the Trump family has announced property ventures in both. And they have big plans in places whose institutions are weaker still.<\/p>\n \u2018You scratch my back, I scratch yours\u2019Eric Trump received a warm welcome when he came to a golf resort groundbreaking ceremony in Vietnam. Photograph: Eduardo Mu\u00f1oz\/Reuters<\/p>\n Eric Trump was showered with gold and silver confetti at May\u2019s groundbreaking ceremony for the family\u2019s new $1.5bn golf resort in Vietnam. Centre-stage beside the prime minister, he looked delighted. In a country where securing the permits for a property development typically requires years of obstruction, the Trump venture had won approval in three months.<\/p>\n \u201cThe project has received personal attention from President Donald Trump and his administration,\u201d Vietnamese officials wrote in a document obtained by the New York Times<\/a>. Making the Trumps wait by sticking to the planning rules would cause a delay that could \u201cnegatively affect Vietnam\u2019s \u2026 relations with the US, especially with President Donald Trump\u2019s administration\u201d. So scrutiny required by law, including an environmental review, was curtailed.<\/p>\n Trump himself would receive an immediate $5m from a local developer to license the name, the presidential filing shows. By contrast, the authorities are giving villagers whose farms north of Hanoi are to be bulldozed to make way for, among other things, a \u201cnature-themed\u201d golf course<\/a>, compensation of as little as $12 a square metre and some rice. \u201cWe have no right to negotiate,\u201d a farmer in the one-party state told a reporter<\/a>.<\/p>\n In April, the month before Eric attended the groundbreaking, his father had declared Liberation Day import tariffs<\/a>. Vietnam faced a steep 46% rate, among the highest<\/a>. In May, Trump\u2019s trade negotiator held talks<\/a> with Vietnam\u2019s. Days later, Eric landed<\/a>, waved at the locals, and proceeded to the groundbreaking. In July, Vietnam became the second country, after the UK, to reach a tariff deal with the US, more than halving its rate to 20%.<\/p>\n No evidence has emerged that the tariff reduction was an explicit reward for business advantages. And the cut came as a relief for the many Vietnamese who depend on its manufacturing export industry. But questions remain. Analysts say this style of dealmaking \u2013 which creates the suspicion that political favour is for sale \u2013 could set back anti-corruption reforms that had been gaining momentum.<\/p>\n Kimberly Kay Hoang, a Vietnam expert at the University of Chicago and author of Spiderweb Capitalism, said Vietnam\u2019s rulers were \u201cusing the same playbook with Trump that they do with China: \u2018You scratch my back, I scratch yours, we are going to do these deals and there are going to be a small number of people who are going to benefit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Trumps have property ventures in India, the Philippines, and South Korea \u2013 each a big exporter threatened by his tariffs.<\/p>\n \u2019Crypto capital\u2019<\/p>\n The Trumps\u2019 income in the first half of this year increased 17-fold, from $51m 12 months earlier to $864m, Reuters calculates<\/a>. Of that, more than 90% came not from real estate but from cryptocurrency. The Trumps\u2019 representatives have questioned those numbers but it is clear that this new frontier is proving remarkably lucrative for them.<\/p>\n When Trump launched World Liberty Financial<\/a> two months before his re-election, he claimed it would help make \u201cAmerica the crypto capital of the world\u201d. Three of his sons \u2013 Don Jr and Eric along with Barron, aged 19, net worth about $150m \u2013 are named as co-founders, as was Trump himself until he was sworn in.<\/p>\n Four months into Trump\u2019s second term, World Liberty announced<\/a> that its USD1 digital currency had been selected for a gigantic transaction. Binance, the world\u2019s biggest crypto exchange, was selling a stake to a United Arab Emirates state-owned fund called MGX. The $2bn price could have been paid in dollars. Instead, Binance would receive 2m freshly minted USD1.<\/p>\n Because USD1 is a stablecoin \u2013 crypto pegged to a real currency \u2013 World Liberty holds one dollar for each token it issues. It makes money from the interest and investment returns on these reserves. The $2bn jump in the reserves from this one deal could end up making the Trumps\u2019 company tens of millions annually.<\/p>\n Around the same time, Binance\u2019s stratospherically wealthy Chinese-born founder, Changpeng Zhao, asked Trump for something. He had served a four-month sentence in a California prison for violating US laws against money laundering. Prosecutors said that allowing sanctioned Russians, al-Qaida and assorted others to move illicit funds over Binance \u2013 which paid a $4bn fine \u2013 had caused \u201csignificant harm to US national security\u201d.<\/p>\n Upon his release, CZ, as he is known, went home to the UAE. His criminal record looked like an obstacle to re-establishing Binance in the US. He applied for a pardon in May, just as it emerged that the $2bn deal was done with USD1. On 23 October, Zhao posted on X<\/a>: \u201cDeeply grateful for today\u2019s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America\u2019s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n World Liberty\u2019s lawyers told the Guardian it would be taking \u201cextraordinary risks\u201d if it published a \u201cnarrative involving a quid pro quo between CZ and President Trump\u201d. There was a sound business case for the Binance stake sale to be done in USD1, they said. They denied reports<\/a> that Binance had asked the Emiratis to make the payment in USD1, pointing to a statement by the Emiratis that they, not Binance, had selected the cryptocurrency for the transaction.<\/p>\n Asked about Zhao\u2019s pardon, Trump claimed he had \u201cno idea who he is\u201d<\/a>. He said: \u201cI gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of good people.\u201d That may raise questions about whether the pardon was linked to the $2bn deal. The same could be said of the Emirati end of the transaction in USD1. Days later, Trump granted the UAE access to AI chips<\/a> that are among the most coveted US technology.<\/p>\n The appearance that Trump\u2019s favour can be bought seems to be remaking international relations. In Indonesia, the environment ministry has halted work on a Trump resort. During October\u2019s Gaza summit in Egypt, a hot mic caught Indonesia\u2019s president speaking urgently with Trump<\/a>, seemingly about his family\u2019s business interests. \u201cCan I meet Eric?\u201d Prabowo Subianto said. \u201cI\u2019ll have Eric call,\u201d Trump replied. \u201cHe\u2019s such a good boy.\u201d<\/p>\n Quick GuideContact Tom Burgis about this storyShow If you have something to share on this subject you can contact Tom using one of the following methods.<\/p>\n Email (not secure)<\/p>\n If you don’t need a high level of security or confidentiality you can email tom.burgis@theguardian.com.<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS<\/a>\/Android<\/a>) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019.<\/p>\n To send a message to Tom please choose the \u2018UK Investigations\u2019 team.<\/p>\n SecureDrop and other secure methods<\/p>\n If you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764499148_153_4000.jpg\")
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