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WaPo Columnist Jamal Khashoggi killed by Saudis in Turkey; Senators Mull Magnitsky Sanctions
- Thread starter Arithmetic
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"Saudi Arabia, I like the Saudis," Trump said at a July 2015 rally. "I make a lot of money with them. They buy all sorts of my stuff. All kinds of toys from Trump. They pay me millions and hundred of millions."
45th floor of Trump World Tower
In June 2001, Trump sold the entire 45th floor of Trump World Tower to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to multiple reports. The apartments, located near the United Nations headquarters, were later converted in 2008 into part of the Saudi Mission to the UN.
The transaction earned Trump $4.5 million, according to the New York Daily News, citing a New York City Finance Department spokeswoman.
The Daily News obtained documents showing the deal involved five apartments, which included 10 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. In addition to the purchase price, the annual charges of more than $85,000 for building amenities — assuming they remained the same through the years — means "Trump was paid at least $5.7 million by the Saudi government since 2001," the Daily News wrote in a September 2016 article.
Other reports say Trump pocketed as much as $12 million in the sale. That figure comes from the Associated Press, citing the brokerage site Streeteasy, which said Trump’s 2001 deal with the Saudis "was the biggest purchase in that building to that point."
In his 2016 bid for the White House, Trump touted his real estate transactions with the Saudis.
"Saudi Arabia — and I get along great with all of them. They buy apartments from me," Trump said at an Aug. 21, 2015, rally. "They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much."
A yacht named ‘Princess’
According to the Associated Press, Trump was "teetering on personal bankruptcy and scrambling to raise cash" in 1991 when Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal agreed to buy Trump’s yacht.
The 280-foot yacht, named "Princess," sold for $20 million, which according to the Associated Press, was a third less than what Trump is reported to have paid for it.
In 1995, Prince Alwaleed was among a group of investors who paid $325 million for Trump's Plaza Hotel, which looks over Manhattan’s Central Park. According to the Associated Press, the hotel at the time of purchase was a money-losing venture.
Saudi visitors to Trump hotels
Even as president, Trump hotels continue to earn business from Saudi interests, reports show.
Groups lobbying on behalf of the Saudi government spent $270,000 at Trump’s Washington hotel, according to a Washington Post investigation. The bill included some $190,000 for rooms, $78,000 spent on catering and $1,600 for parking, according to lobbyist filings.
"The bill was ultimately paid by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the Post reported.
A separate Washington Post investigation found that visits to Trump hotels by big-spending Saudis were responsible for a revenue bump.
A letter obtained by the Post from the general manager of the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan said "a last-minute visit to New York by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia" had been a major factor in a 13 percent bump in revenue from room rentals for the first three months of 2018 — after two years of declining figures.
The Post reported that while the Crown Prince did not personally stay at the hotel, accommodating his accompanying travelers for a five-day stay in March "was enough to boost the hotel’s revenue for the entire quarter."
Emoluments Clause lawsuit
In July, a federal judge in Maryland ruled that a lawsuit could proceed against Trump over his Washington hotel’s acceptance of payments from foreign governments. The suit alleges that by collecting such revenues — from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as other foreign governments — Trump is violating the Constitution’s foreign Emoluments Clause.
The judge found that while Trump does not "actively manage" the Trump International Hotel, he "continues to own and purportedly controls" it, as well as the adjoining restaurant and event spaces, and "actually or potentially shares in the revenues."
The accountability watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, is involved in the suit, which was brought by the District of Columbia and Maryland.
A spokesman for CREW said Trump’s continued business dealings at Trump Hotel DC — less than a mile from the White House — represents a serious conflict of interest.
"The problems — both ethical and Constitutional — with the president's businesses profiting off foreign governments like Saudi Arabia are in the profits themselves, not the physical location of the businesses," said CREW spokesman Jordan Libowitz.
Trump's claim of no Saudi financial ties is misleading
"The president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also decided to make Saudi Arabia a linchpin of their policy in the Middle East. Kushner, lacking full security clearance and any diplomatic experience, lobbied the crown prince directly in early 2017 to secure what was fancifully and inaccurately touted as a $110 billion arms sale – most of which had been agreed a year earlier, and the bulk of which still hasn't been completed.
Shortly after that transaction was arranged, Trump visited Saudi Arabia. And soon after that, the Saudis announced they would invest $20 billion in an infrastructure fund managed by Blackstone Group LP. The New York-based firm had financed several of the Kushner family's deals and its chairman, Stephen Schwarzman, sat on the president's business-advisory council. The private equity firm told Bloomberg News that the Saudi investment had been contemplated long before Trump was even the Republican nominee.
Kushner's forays alarmed members of the intelligence and national security communities, as Bob Woodward outlined in his book, “Fear.” At the very moment Kushner was throwing himself into these diplomatic adventures, he was coming under scrutiny for his own financial conflicts – in particular, his efforts to secure funding for 666 Fifth Avenue, a troubled Manhattan skyscraper his family owned.
Although the family has since sold off the property, Kushner had tried unsuccessfully to secure funding for it from a Chinese investor. His intersection with a prominent banker and diplomats from Moscow during the Trump campaign's transition into the White House raised questions about whether he was courting Russian investors (which he denied). Inevitably, the Kushner family also courted a prominent Saudi investor to bail them out of 666 Fifth, as detailed by my Bloomberg News colleagues David Kocieniewski and Caleb Melby.
Late last year, Kushner made another secretive trip alone to Riyadh. He later described the visit as an effort to "brainstorm” Middle East strategies with Mohammed bin Salman. Not long afterward, the crown prince placed dozens of prominent businessmen and political rivals under house arrest in what was described as an anti-corruption drive. Among them was Alwaleed, the man who once snatched the Plaza Hotel and yacht from Kushner's father-in-law.
Earlier this year, leaked intelligence reports revealed that diplomats in Mexico, Israel, China and the United Arab Emirates had decided to target Kushner because they believed he could be easily manipulated due to “his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.”
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
Berniewood Hogan
IT'S BERNIE SANDERS WITH A STEEL CHAIR!
Saudi Arabia reportedly plans to admit Khashoggi was murdered and use top general close to crown prince as scapegoat
1. maybe he's alive
2. well, we didn't do it
3. okay, we did it, by accident
4. we did it on purpose but it was just this one guy's idea, we'll execute him immediately, everything's fine, here's $100 million
1. maybe he's alive
2. well, we didn't do it
3. okay, we did it, by accident
4. we did it on purpose but it was just this one guy's idea, we'll execute him immediately, everything's fine, here's $100 million
Jhoon
Spontaneous Mishaps and Hijinks
Have you seen their army in Yemen?
Those people can’t do anything right. Do you really need 15 people to take out 1 fat, middle age guy?
You sent 2 jets?
malbaker86
Gators
ZoeGod
I’m from Brooklyn a place where stars are born.
Really raises morale in your military that even when you follow orders you still get executed.
Entropy Fan
Superstar
This is why Arab militaries suck. Zero military morale or devotion. Arabs are a dysfunctional lot.
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