Oct. 7 scuttled massive Trump Organization project in Israel — president-elect’s son

The Trump Organization plans to build a Trump Tower in the Saudi capital Riyadh as part of a real estate expansion in the region including in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, Eric Trump, the US president-elect’s son tells Reuters.

Outlining two new projects in Riyadh, in partnership with Dubai-based luxury developer Dar Global DARD.L, The Trump Organization executive vice president declines to give details.

“What I’ll tell you is one of them will definitely be a tower,” Trump says in an interview, adding that his company plans to further expand its partnership with Dar Global across the Gulf region including a new project in Abu Dhabi.

“We’ll probably be in Abu Dhabi in the next year or so,” Trump says, a day after the two companies unveiled plans for a glittering gold Trump Tower in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.

When Trump first took office in 2017, he retained ownership of the Trump Organization but placed control of the sprawling business empire in the hands of his sons Eric and Donald Jr., breaking with US precedent by not divesting his businesses or putting them into a blind trust.

This raised conflict of interest concerns and Democratic congressional investigators later found that businesses tied to the president received at least $7.8 million in foreign payments from 20 countries during his four years in the White House.

“I have no interaction with Washington, D.C. I want no interaction with Washington, D.C.” Eric Trump says in response to a question on potential conflicts of interest, adding they would follow the same practices as during Trump’s first term.

“I think we are going to navigate that very smartly, very well, no different than we did in 2016,” he says.

His father’s position meant that The Trump Organization would avoid opening up businesses with countries involved in active conflicts such as Russia, Ukraine and Israel, or where the US is considering imposing heavy tariffs like China.

“We could have done two of the biggest buildings in Israel,” Eric Trump said, adding: “They were slated to be done and then obviously October 7 came around, you couldn’t do it. You just have to be sensitive to what was happening.”