What if Trump was banned from the Muslim-majority Middle East?

Published December 10th, 2015 - 07:38 GMT

The blatant racism behind Trump's recent remarks calling for "total and complete shutdown" on Muslims entering the US has already been decried at length in the media. So we took a look at the flip-side of this absurd scenario: What if Trump was banned from the Middle East? How would his real estate empire hold up without its many Middle Eastern projects and partnerships with Muslim businessmen? Probably not very well -- and here’s why a taste of his own medicine might put a wrench in his good Arabian works.

A hypothetical prospect that may fast be turning grim reality for a man who leaves nothing to the imagination when it comes to his distaste for Muslimkind.

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Trump has a long list of major investments in the Middle East, including business interests in hotels and golf courses in Egypt, Turkey, Dubai and Qatar, according to Open Corporates, a Wikipedia-type website that tracks data about corporate entities around the world.

al-Walid bin Talal Abdulaziz al-Saud donald trump

Trump’s dealings in the Middle East date back to the 1990’s. In 1995, he made a $325 million deal to bail out a New York hotel with an investment group tied to al-Walid bin Talal Abdulaziz al-Saud, according to the International Business Times. Al-Walid bin Talal is an influential Saudi businessman and part of the Saudi royal family.

In 2006, the UAE’s top property developer Nakheel Properties teamed up with Trump to develop the Trump International Hotel & Tower on The Palm Jumeirah. The 48-story mixed-use building was to hold a 300-room hotel and 360 apartments. The project was cancelled, long before these ill-advised remarks that will not have endeared him to the Emiratis.

Trump is also friends and partners with Hussain Sajwani, the owner and chairman of Damac Properties, a luxury real estate company in Dubai. Trump and Sajwani have lately partnered up on a 42 million square-foot real estate project, made up of over 100 villas and mansions that begin at over $1 million.

Trump & Sajwani’s Dubai development includes a golf course, a luxury spa & a 30,000 square foot clubhouse--the largest of its kind in the city. Damac Properties said Tuesday that they were sticking with Trump. “We would not comment on Mr Trump’s personal or political agenda,” a spokesman with the company told The National news site.

Trump's daughter Ivanka oversaw the design of the million-dollar villas that make up a key part of the Damac Properties project. Unlike other instances where Trump simply sells his name for a fee, he’s an investor in this project.

Ivanka Trump said in May that she was exploring Abu Dhabi, Qatar & Saudi Arabia as further development options for the family business. Trump “is more than happy to make money off Muslims” while “attacking them in the most vicious way possible," Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Relations, told Al Jazeera this week.

What’s more, Qatar’s national airline Qatar Airways has had a corporate campus in a Trump building in midtown Manhattan for years. In 2007, when Qatar Airways launched New York flights, Trump and his wife Melanie went to a glitzy party hosted by the airline where they yakked it up with Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker.

Trump’s xenophobic comments have already hurt his Middle East business dealings. Arab billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor, chairman of the Al Habtoor group, retracted his endorsement of Trump's presidential ambitions this week, saying he “made a mistake” by having supported Trump, who “is creating a hatred between Muslims and the USA.”

Trump has a long list of major investments in the Middle East, including business interests in hotels and golf courses in Egypt, Turkey, Dubai and Qatar, according to Open Corporates, a Wikipedia-type website that tracks data about corporate entities around the world.

Trump’s dealings in the Middle East date back to the 1990’s. In 1995, he made a $325 million deal to bail out a New York hotel with an investment group tied to al-Walid bin Talal Abdulaziz al-Saud, according to the International Business Times. Al-Walid bin Talal is an influential Saudi businessman and part of the Saudi royal family.

In 2006, the UAE’s top property developer Nakheel Properties teamed up with Trump to develop the Trump International Hotel & Tower on The Palm Jumeirah. The 48-story mixed-use building was to hold a 300-room hotel and 360 apartments. The project was cancelled, long before these ill-advised remarks that will not have endeared him to the Emiratis.

Trump is also friends and partners with Hussain Sajwani, the owner and chairman of Damac Properties, a luxury real estate company in Dubai. Trump and Sajwani have lately partnered up on a 42 million square-foot real estate project, made up of over 100 villas and mansions that begin at over $1 million.

Trump & Sajwani’s Dubai development includes a golf course, a luxury spa & a 30,000 square foot clubhouse--the largest of its kind in the city. Damac Properties said Tuesday that they were sticking with Trump. “We would not comment on Mr Trump’s personal or political agenda,” a spokesman with the company told The National news site.

Trump's daughter Ivanka oversaw the design of the million-dollar villas that make up a key part of the Damac Properties project. Unlike other instances where Trump simply sells his name for a fee, he’s an investor in this project.

Ivanka Trump said in May that she was exploring Abu Dhabi, Qatar & Saudi Arabia as further development options for the family business. Trump “is more than happy to make money off Muslims” while “attacking them in the most vicious way possible," Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Relations, told Al Jazeera this week.

What’s more, Qatar’s national airline Qatar Airways has had a corporate campus in a Trump building in midtown Manhattan for years. In 2007, when Qatar Airways launched New York flights, Trump and his wife Melanie went to a glitzy party hosted by the airline where they yakked it up with Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker.

Trump’s xenophobic comments have already hurt his Middle East business dealings. Arab billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor, chairman of the Al Habtoor group, retracted his endorsement of Trump's presidential ambitions this week, saying he “made a mistake” by having supported Trump, who “is creating a hatred between Muslims and the USA.”

What if Trump was banned from the Muslim-majority Middle East?

Trump has a long list of major investments in the Middle East, including business interests in hotels and golf courses in Egypt, Turkey, Dubai and Qatar, according to Open Corporates, a Wikipedia-type website that tracks data about corporate entities around the world.

Trump's daughter Ivanka oversaw the design of the million-dollar villas that make up a key part of the Damac Properties project. Unlike other instances where Trump simply sells his name for a fee, he’s an investor in this project.

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