New York Times: Trump's sons' money-making competition will benefit the president himself

A kind of competition between the two elder sons of US President Donald Trump is taking place these days across Europe, the United States (US) and the Middle East, as they appear to be trying to outdo each other in a flood of family ventures aimed at amassing money and capitalizing on their father's name and power, the New York Times writes today.

This newspaper writes about a "rush to accumulate" billions of dollars that has very few precedents in American history, and as part of which one of Trump's sons, Donald Trump Jr., was in Serbia.

There, the New York Times reminds us, the Trump family is planning to build a hotel "on land owned by the (Serbian) government", and during a visit to Belgrade, Trump Jr. "met with President Aleksandar Vučić, whose administration approved the hotel project, which also includes Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law, as the developer."

The newspaper quotes Vučić's social media post after lunch with Trump Jr.

Vučić wrote on Instagram at the time: "Many foreigners, rightly, say that I am a difficult person and that it is not easy to talk to me, but no one has yet said that we are inhospitable. We prepared this pig for Donald Trump Jr.... PS It would be stupid to offer shrimp and sea bream."

The New York Times mentions some of the projects in which Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric are involved: a luxury hotel in Dubai, a posh residential skyscraper in Jeddah, two cryptocurrency projects in the US, a new golf course and villa complex in Qatar, and a new private club in Washington.

According to the New York Daily News, in many cases these new jobs, which were promoted last week, will not only bring personal benefit to Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. but also to their father, the president himself.

The newspaper points out that relatives of some previous presidents, such as Jimmy Carter's brother, Billy, George W. Bush's brother, Neil, and Joseph Biden's son, Hunter, had business ventures that raised suspicions of potential conflicts of interest.

However, the New York Times adds, what distinguishes their businesses from those of Trump's two sons is that the current president himself will benefit financially from the latter.

Their dealmaking marathon is so fast-paced that many of its elements attract only limited public attention in the US, even though most of it takes place in plain sight.

This, the paper points out, is partly because Trump's sons appear in an audience made up mostly of sycophants, and partly because their father, the president, his associates, and his billionaire advisor Elon Musk make headlines with a constant stream of norm-breaking controversies.

The White House says there are no ethical issues in the Trump sons' businesses due to them managing them and claims there are "no conflicts of interest."

However, Trump's financial statements, which he is required by law to file, show that he continues to personally benefit from most of these business ventures.

Eric Trump told the New York Times that many of the businesses he and his brother are promoting, from cryptocurrency businesses to real estate, were in development before their father was re-elected as US president.

"We are building the most prominent projects on Earth and leading the digital revolution," he said.

Donald Trump Jr. dismissed any thought of trading in his father's name, saying he has been a businessman his entire adult life, and then attacked Hunter Biden for selling paintings while his father Joseph was president.

"It's funny that the left-wing media thinks I should lock myself in a room with bars while my father is president and stop doing what I've been doing for over 25 years to make a living and provide for my five children. Anyway, if I did, I suppose I could always take up painting, I've heard it makes a pretty good living," he wrote sarcastically in a statement to The Times.

The newspaper writes that in the last 10 days alone, Donald Trump Jr. has been to Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria on a paid speaking tour he has dubbed "Trump's Business Vision 2025", which includes visits - with the participation of heads of government and political candidates.

Around the same time, Eric Trump was "shuttling" around Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and other Middle Eastern countries to promote his family's construction and cryptocurrency plans.

The president himself has been doing his part in the family business these days, and last weekend he attended a fundraising event at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

This, the newspaper says, is his tenth visit to the club since returning to the White House in January, and many of these weekend visits with political gatherings allow his family to pay the bills.