Trump, the campaign spokesperson added, “did not get into politics for profit; he fights because he loves the people of this country.”

Eric Trump, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the family business, has not indicated whether he would impose ethical constraints on the company. “The first term, we did everything imaginable to avoid any appearance of impropriety, and frankly, we got crushed anyway,” he said in an interview. “We can’t sit still forever, and I won’t.”

Even with the company’s self-imposed restrictions during Trump’s presidency, the Trump Organization has remained very open for business. Lobbyists, lawmakers, and favor seekers of all types spent lavishly at Trump’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, and at the Trump hotel in Washington, which he later sold. Foreign officials and executives stayed in his hotels and joined his clubs.

Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in government ethics, said the measures Trump put in place in 2017 were “weak and riddled with holes,” and mostly in appearance. Going forward, she said, “it is telling and worrying” if Trump refuses to reinstate even those restrictions.

“He will feel even less constrained by ethical or public relations concerns than he did under his first administration,” she said.

At its core, the Trump Organization is a New York-based real estate company with a portfolio of American hotels, golf courses, residential buildings and office towers – some owned by Trump, others he is paid to put his name on it and exploit them.

But after Trump’s 2020 election defeat and the violence at the end of his term on January 6, 2021, the company looked abroad to find more partners, as some major U.S. companies severed ties with Trump properties.

It all started in 2022, when Trump clubs began hosting a series of tournaments hosted by LIV Golf, the new professional league funded by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. The deal generated significant payments to the Trump Organization, while also drawing patrons to Trump National Doral Miami, which hosted another LIV tournament last April, and to other Trump properties.

The Trump Organization has entered into its largest Saudi partnership with Dar Al Arkan, a Saudi-based real estate company. Over the past two years, the companies have signed deals to build luxury hotels or golf courses in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Oman.

Dar Al Arkan is a private company, but has close financial ties to the Saudi government. And he’s building one of those projects on land owned by the government of Oman, putting the former president’s family in business with the monarchy there.

Oman would also be an important partner for a Trump administration. It maintains close economic ties with Iran and therefore continues to play a vital diplomatic role in an unstable region.

Also partnering with the Saudi government is Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser, who invested $2 billion in a private equity fund Kushner created after he left the White House. One of Kushner’s deals is to build a luxury hotel on a government-owned site in Serbia, with profits shared with the government owner.

Kushner said he would not return to government if his father-in-law won. But even so, his involvement in Saudi Arabia and Serbia could pose a conflict for Trump, ethics lawyers said.

As the former president campaigns for re-election, Trump continues to praise the Saudi government and suggested he would work to include the country in normalization deals reached by other Middle East countries. East with Israel.

“If I win, it will be a top priority,” he said in a recent interview with a Saudi state television channel, in which he also praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, calling him “truly visionary”.

Before Hamas’ attack on Israel last year, the Trump Organization was also seeking to open a luxury hotel in Israel, the Times recently reported. One of the firm’s partners in the potential deal said the Trumps backed out because of an “ethical issue related to Donald J. Trump as he moved closer to being considered the Republican candidate.

The former president has also pursued business opportunities in the United States since leaving the White House, capitalizing on his popularity with a significant portion of the American electorate.

He has marketed Trump-branded books, trinkets and even candy. “Letters to Trump,” a collection of personal notes he received from celebrities, grossed $4.5 million, according to a recent filing. He also received a $300,000 royalty for “the only Bible approved by President Trump!” »

His social media platform, Truth Social, is the one that will bring in the most money for Trump. Although the company has yet to turn a profit and has struggled to attract new users and advertisers, it went public this year and stock prices have surged in recent days, giving Trump, the largest shareholder , a stake valued at $5 billion.

Ethics watchdogs have complained that foreign governments and others seeking to score points with Trump could buy shares of Truth Social, while U.S. companies seeking government favors could buy ads on the platform. As a public company, the social platform is also subject to some oversight from the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose chairman is appointed by the president.

An even bigger conflict could arise from Trump’s new cryptocurrency venture: The SEC has sought to crack down on the crypto industry, pushing for new regulations and taking action against some of its biggest players.

But if Trump is to be believed, that would change in a second Trump term. At a Bitcoin conference this summer, he pledged to fire current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, an industry skeptic, and replace him with a friendly regulator.

“We will have regulations, but from now on the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry,” Trump said, adding that he would make the United States the “capital of the world for cryptography.

This article was originally published in The New York Times.