RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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President Donald Trump's foreign real-estate licensing business boomed during his first year back in office, generating $59.5 million in 2025 as international developers paid a premium to brand luxury towers , golf courses and coastal resorts with the Trump name.
Foreign licensing revenue, including for the use of the Trump name on properties around the world, rose 71% from 2024. The sum was nearly 10 times higher than in 2023, according to a CNBC analysis of Trump's annual financial disclosure — fueled by the Trump Organization's reversal of the company's first-term pledge to pursue " no new foreign deals whatsoever ."
The Trump Organization's second-term ethics policy bars new material transactions with foreign governments but allows deals with private foreign companies
Four Trump-affiliated licensing LLCs not listed in his 2024 disclosure generated $20.25 million in 2025, accounting for 82% of the increase. Five other licensing LLCs that had previously been listed as inactive generated another $9.64 million.
More than 60% of the licensing income came from projects in Gulf countries .
Some of those developers licensing the Trump name were pursuing major U.S. investments, seeking government permits or pressing for favorable economic and diplomatic relations. Other Trump-branded projects relied on state-owned land, sovereign investment or partnerships with government-controlled companies.
The result, ethics watchdogs told CNBC, is an unprecedented collision between the president's public power and private wealth . The deals also raise unresolved questions, legal experts told CNBC, about the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause .
CNBC found no evidence that any licensing payment influenced an administration decision, that a developer received special treatment or that Trump intervened on a company's behalf.
The Trump Organization told CNBC it operates "completely separate from the presidency," complies with ethics and conflict-of-interest laws and uses an outside ethics adviser to avoid conflicts. The Trump Organization did not respond to questions about specific projects involving foreign licensing.
Asked about Trump’s foreign dealmaking, a White House spokesperson did not address the arrangements directly. The spokesperson said “the only special interest guiding” Trump’s decisions is “the best interest of the American people” and pointed to more than $2 trillion in investment commitments and commercial, defense, aviation and technology deals announced during the president's May 2025 Gulf trip .
"Foreign governments and politically connected businesses now have a direct, incredibly visible way to put money into the sitting president's pocket," said Scott Greytak , deputy executive director of Transparency International U.S., an anti-corruption nonprofit.
"The conflict is already in plain sight right now," Greytak told CNBC. "We don't need to wait for some kind of smoking gun to see a quid pro quo."
Eric Trump told The New York Times in 2024 that the family "did everything imaginable to avoid any appearance of impropriety" and "got crushed anyway." He continued, saying, "We can't just sit out in perpetuity, and I won't."
Donald Trump was blunter about the foreign deals, telling The Times in January, "I found out that nobody cared. I'm allowed to."
Projects linked to the United Arab Emirates generated roughly $22 million in licensing income for Trump in 2025, followed by Saudi Arabia with $9 million and Qatar with $5 million.
Much of that revenue flowed through two Gulf real-estate developers: Saudi-linked Dar Al Arkan and UAE-based Damac .
Trump reported $25.8 million tied to projects involving Dar Al Arkan and its Dubai-based international arm, Dar Global. Damac-linked projects generated another $11.3 million.
Under the licensing model, local developers generally finance and build the properties, while the Trump Organization collects fees for use of its name and, in some cases, for managing them.
The deals come amid a Gulf-region boom in branded residences, which use luxury and celebrity names to command premium prices. In Dubai, for instance, branded-home transaction volume rose 26% year over year during the first nine months of 2025, while sales value climbed 51%, according to commercial real estate services and investment company CBRE , using its most recent available information.
The Trump name offers something other luxury and celebrity brands cannot: the suggestion of access to the power of the presidency.
Critics like Ben Freeman , director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said being associated with Trump's brand can signal political access when a developer — or its government — has interests before Washington. The think tank advocates for diplomacy rather than military intervention.
"Is this an America First foreign policy, or is this a Trump First foreign policy?" Freeman told CNBC.
Damac offers an example of that overlap, ethics experts said.
Its $11.3 million in licensing payments included two newly disclosed $5 million fees tied to Damac's Abu Dhabi projects, even though the Trump Organization has no active developments there. That is possible because developers can pay for the contractual right to use the Trump brand before a project is built — including through up-front or milestone-based fees.
The payments came as Damac, founded by billionaire Hussain Sajwani , pursued a major U.S. expansion.
In January 2025, Sajwani joined then president-elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago to announce plans to invest at least $20 billion in U.S. data centers . Trump praised the commitment and said companies investing at least $1 billion would receive expedited environmental and regulatory reviews.
Sajwani, a longtime friend of Trump , told CNBC at the time that " the sky is the limit " when it came to U.S. investment.
Six months later, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to accele...
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