'Bad omen': Trump foreign golf club deal slammed as major 'conflict of interest'

Although President Donald Trump continues to draw mockery and ridicule for insisting that war-torn Gaza can be turned into a major resort area, the Trump Organization's ambitions in another part of the Middle East — Qatar — took a major step forward on Wednesday, April 30 when, according to the Associated Press (AP), members of the Trump family "struck a deal" to "build a luxury golf resort" in that country.

The AP's Bernard Condon describes the Qatar deal as a "sign" that Trump family members have "no plans to hold back from foreign dealmaking during a second Trump Administration, despite the danger of a president shaping U.S. public policy for personal financial gain."

Noah Bookbinder, president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), is attacking the deal as a major conflict of interest for President Trump. Condon quotes Bookbinder as saying, "You want a president making decisions that are in the best interest of the United States, not his bottom line."

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Condon reports, "In addition to a Saudi Arabian partner, called Dar Global, the planned resort north of the Qatari capital of Doha will be developed by a Qatari company called Qatari Diar, which is owned by the Qatari government. That would appear to violate the Trump Organization's much weaker, second-term ethics pledge that, while it would pursue foreign deals, none would include foreign governments."

The Qatar deal is receiving a great deal of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.

CREW tweeted, "The Trump Organization has agreed to a deal with a Qatari government-owned firm to back a development in the country, two weeks before President Trump is set to travel to Qatar on a state visit. See a conflict of interest there?"

Newsweek noted, "The announcement of a golf resort in Qatar underscores the deepening ties between Trump's affiliated company and Gulf nations."

Democratic activist Susie Bradford posted, "Why does he keep getting away with this??"

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U.K.-based national security researcher Kyle Orton tweeted, "Decision time for pro-Trump, anti-Qatar Israelis and others: has Trump joined the legions on the payroll of a terrorist regime, or had the plucky little shaykhdom been hard done by and Trump is recognising this through deft golf course diplomacy?"

Upstate New York-based X user Laura Noonan wrote, "DJT is one huge conflict of interest!"

The Real Deal's Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt argued, "Is no one going to ring alarm bells over a sitting president conducting business with a terror-backing foreign country that has been carefully buying influence across our government, academia, media, and business sectors?"

Journalist Eitan Fischberger wrote, "Bad Omen for President Trump’s Upcoming Visit to Qatar."

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