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Property, golf, and crypto: the Trump family strikes deals in the Middle East
Tue, 13 May 2025
President Trump is making the first extended foreign trip of his term in the Middle East. The Wall Street Journal’s Eliot Brown discusses how parts of his personal business empire are also striking deals in the region. USA Today looks at opening statements in the criminal trial for Sean “Diddy” Combs, and the legal arguments expected from the defense and the prosecution. Using batteries for grid-scale energy storage will improve how Americans get their power. Vox’s Umair Irfan tells us about the benefits. Plus, what to know about Republicans’ proposed Medicaid cuts, Trump’s executive order instructing drug companies to lower prices, and the unlikely winner of the NBA draft lottery. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What is President Trump's itinerary and goals in the Middle East?
He's in Saudi Arabia today and plans to visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as well. His itinerary largely focuses on potential economic deals with the U.S. He's attending an investment forum in Saudi Arabia today. Its government has promised to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, though the kingdom's large budget deficit will make that a hard promise to deliver on.
The UAE has pledged to spend $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the next decade, and Qatar recently offered a gift that could be the most expensive in modern history, a $400 million luxury jet that Trump is reportedly considering to use as Air Force One, and continue using even after he leaves office by transferring the plane to his presidential library.
But while the president looks for deals to secure for the U.S., his family has been busy deepening their personal business ties with the region. And as Wall Street Journal reporter Elliot Brown told us, doing so while Trump is in office and seeking concessions from these same countries seems to blur the line between policy and personal interest.
Chapter 2: How is the Trump family involved in business deals in the Middle East?
The Trump organization, his real estate and hotel and branding company, they said they wouldn't do foreign deals of any sort in the first term. For the second term, they've limited that to deals directly with foreign governments.
That pivot has led to arrangements Brown described as ethically squishy.
Chapter 3: What are the ethical concerns regarding the Trump family's foreign business ties?
Particularly the UAE and Qatar have done a surprising number of deals with the president's family, with his close associates, with his son-in-law.
Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, secured more than $3.5 billion worth of sovereign or royal funds from both countries, plus Saudi Arabia, for a private equity fund that he runs. The Trump Organization recently announced plans to develop a major new residential complex in Dubai.
An Abu Dhabi investment firm announced plans last week to contribute $2 billion to the Trump family's cryptocurrency company. And Eric Trump, the president's son, recently signed a deal to develop a golf course in Doha.
They are building a hotel with a private developer, but the private developer struck a deal with a Qatari state fund. And so then you have Eric Trump alongside a Qatari minister launching it publicly. So basically any one of these large number of things noted in our article would have been a scandal in most other administrations, if not every other administration.
The White House has said it's ridiculous to suggest the president is doing anything for his personal benefit. And earlier this year, the Trump Organization instituted a new ethics plan where the company says it will continue to donate any profit from foreign government patronage to the U.S. government.
But government accountability groups, Democrats and others, say they're concerned about conflicts of interest and how foreign governments could potentially use business deals like these to influence U.S. policy.
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Chapter 4: What potential influence do Middle Eastern countries seek from the U.S. through business deals?
The sort of view of analysts and former diplomats is this can be another way of sort of pressuring the president to get what they want. And every country has something they want out of the U.S. The UAE, for instance, is really going big right now in pushing for an AI deal.
chips that are designed in the U.S. Saudi Arabia is reportedly interested, too. In fact, that's expected to be a major topic of conversation during today's investment forum.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of the investment forum in Saudi Arabia?
If a deal is reached, it would mark another departure from the Biden administration, which had rejected striking similar AI chip deals over concerns that they could help give these countries with strong ties to China an edge over the U.S. in future AI developments. particularly for military and surveillance applications.
Now let's turn to one of the most high-profile court cases of the year as the opening statements for Sean Diddy Combs' criminal trial got underway. The music mogul, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $400 million, has pled not guilty to charges of racketeering and sex trafficking for alleged crimes that took place over a 20-year period.
If he is proven guilty, Combs could spend the rest of his life in prison. During opening statements, the prosecution told the jury that Combs' accusations included kidnapping, arson, drug distribution, sex crimes, bribery, and obstruction.
While the defense conceded that Combs is, quote, very flawed, they denied that any of his behavior amounted to trafficking and that the jury was not here to judge him for his sexual preferences. Key to their case will be two women. The first, Cassie Ventura, Combs' ex-girlfriend.
Chapter 6: What are the details and stakes of Sean Combs' criminal trial?
Yesterday, Combs' defense team admitted that he subjected her to domestic abuse, evidenced by 2016 footage played in court, but denied that she was forced or coerced into sex with male escorts. Prosecutors claim a second woman, known only as Jane, was forced into similar acts and say they have incriminating texts and videos they will present.
Part of what is unique here is that Combs has been charged under the RICO Act, a law that was established to target the mafia. Combs' lead attorney, Mark Agnifilo, a former federal prosecutor, was instrumental in broadening the use of the RICO Act, that's the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, so that it was applicable to street gangs.
But now, as a defense lawyer, Agnifilo may argue that the law doesn't apply to Combs. Robin Nunn, a trial attorney and legal analyst, spoke to CBS about what makes this case different from typical RICO cases.
And usually in those cases, you see a lot more defendants. It's not usually one solo person, like one individual. And in this case, you don't see the 40 defendants that you would expect to see in a racketeering case. We have one person. So these witnesses that they should be calling are really going to have to provide, I was involved, I saw this, this happened.
RICOs are complex cases, which will require prosecutors to prove that Combs ran a sort of criminal enterprise. But it also expands the statute of limitations, and therefore the scope of the case. Here's how CNN legal analyst Ellie Honig said the defense might play out.
So I think the first defense is going to be this was consensual. These were long-term relationships. And even if these were abusive physical relationships, that would be a state-level domestic violence charge. But that would not necessarily be a federal racketeering conspiracy. Relatedly, I think you're going to see the defense go after
The victims, the witnesses, they're going to say, first of all, these were consensual relationships. Second of all, though, I think the defense is going to try to cast doubt on the motivations. They're going to point out the fact that all of these victims have civil suits against Sean Combs. And so I think the defense is going to say this is a pile on.
The trial is expected to last around eight weeks. Let's turn now to a big development in American energy infrastructure, what Vox calls the holy grail of clean energy. Because of the rise of lithium-ion batteries, our capacity to hold electricity in batteries that service our energy grids has increased five-fold in the last few years.
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Chapter 7: What legal arguments are expected in Sean Combs' trial under the RICO Act?
And this year, new battery installations are posed to almost double compared to 2024. Vox's Umair Irfan explained for us why this is such a big deal.
The way our power grid works typically is that we have large centralized generators, and then they send power along long transmission lines and then distribution networks to our homes, our offices, and businesses.
The main issue with that is that electricity has to be used pretty much as soon as it's produced, and so generators have to match the demand instantaneously, minute to minute, second by second, in order to keep the power grid stable.
But battery-based energy storage is changing that, and fast. It allows electricity from solar and wind to be stored and used when needed. Or as backup power in emergencies when transmission lines are damaged. A big reason why this tech is advancing so quickly is because batteries have become a lot cheaper than they were a few decades ago. They're better at holding denser amounts of energy.
Erfan cited a few other reasons.
It has a lot of benefits. It doesn't typically compete with generators directly because it stores energy. It doesn't generate electricity on its own. And oftentimes it charges up using electricity that would otherwise go to waste. And so essentially, a lot of times it's using electricity that's effectively free.
The other good news here is this type of energy storage is cleaner than traditional methods. The American power sector is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It's also getting old and in need of expensive repairs.
And so batteries buy us some time. They help allow some stability and redundancy to provide additional power when it's needed, when parts of the grid have to go down.
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