Trump’s bombing threats have a golf course problem

On Monday morning, President Donald Trump issued a blunt warning to America’s erstwhile ally: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.” It was another one of his un-diplomatic jabs at a longtime friend—this time for the possibility that Oman might prove helpful to Iran in ending the war. But if Trump’s aggressive, crude attitude towards an ally isn’t confusing enough, it’s also another example of how Trump’s sprawling efforts at personal enrichment since he returned to office have only made US foreign policy more complicated.

Because, of course, Trump has a lavish golf course and real estate development deal, right in Oman, on the edge—literally, the cliff’s edge—of the Gulf of Oman, which is just a few dozen miles from the embattled Strait of Hormuz. And the incredibly lucrative terms of the deal—as is the case with most economic opportunities in absolute monarchies such as Oman—were granted to Trump and his business partners with the blessing of the Omani government and crown.

Will this business engagement actually deter Trump from bombing the oldest independent state in the Arab world? That’s unclear, if only because it’s so hard to distinguish Trump’s real threats when it comes to bombing from the empty ones. But the irrefutable fact that he has a large money-making opportunity in the same location where he proposes to bomb raises several questions about how he navigates his priorities as commander-in-chief and international developer.

As I’ve written before, Trump has a very good deal in Oman.

A livestream of the site shows a sun-drenched stretch of water, edged by brown desert rock outcroppings, where it’s easy to imagine minimalist boxy units, cantilevered 400 feet above the sea, starting at just $1 million.

Built by Saudi real estate developer Dar Global on land provided by the Omani government outside its capital city of Muscat, all those seaside views and quiet luxury could be a gold mine for the US president. In 2024, he earned $1 million in licensing fees from the deal. The project’s website boasts of its “ideal location.” It offers “easy access” to the Persian Gulf, which sits just a few hundred miles to the northwest via the Strait of Hormuz. Oman, the website notes, is “one of the safest countries in the world.”

But whatever conflicts of interest may be playing out in Oman are nothing new. It’s difficult to list all the places Trump’s personal business interests are intermingled with US national security interests. Even in South Korea—which Trump also lambasted recently—recently disclosed financial statements showed that Trump embarked on a new deal with some Korean developers.

Previous presidents simply have avoided conflicts of interest. But there is a special problem when it comes to Trump’s: Whether it’s in Oman, or Saudi Arabia, or the Korean peninsula, they’re all mostly licensing deals.

That means that Trump technically doesn’t own any property in Oman. The land on which the project will be constructed is owned by an Omani government entity joint partner on the project, and the project itself is owned by Dar Global, the Saudi development firm. But Trump gets paid for applying his name, managing the property, and selling luxury villas. In total, he has earned somewhere around $35 million on his licensing projects in the Middle East, most of which have been in partnership with Dar Global. In Oman alone, he appears to have earned $6.8 million—and that’s before the property has been built. It’s not clear from the livestream or any information on Dar Global’s website how far along the construction has progressed.

But for a president trying to negotiate Middle East peace or head off a nuclear threat, this is a uniquely bad conflict of interest. Not only are his personal money-making efforts located in the middle of conflict zones, but his chief way to make money is selling the image of success, luxury, and peace. And that’s something our enemies definitely know.