Mattis in UAE for first time as Pentagon chief

DUBAI: (From left) Banke International Director Niraj Masand, Eric Trump, Banke International Director Porush Jhunjhunwala, Donald Trump Jr and DAMAC Properties Chairman Hussain Sajwani are seen during festivities marking the formal opening of the Trump International Golf Club yesterday. - AP

DUBAI: The American president's businessman sons opened the Trump International Golf Club yesterday as Dubai hosted the first foreign launch of a venue bearing Donald Trump's name since he took office. The Trump International Golf Club, developed in the glitzy Gulf city state by luxury real estate firm DAMAC Properties, was inaugurated by the billionaire's sons Eric and Donald Jr. The event marks the Trump Organization's first public overseas launch since the president's Jan 20 inauguration.

Fireworks crackled above the golf course late yesterday, as inside the club the Trump brothers posed for selfies with guests. Trump's sons then left, as they had arrived, in a fleet of four-wheel-drives and diplomatic vehicles under police escort. The venue was carpeted in red for the opening, with a maquette of the sprawling green, spa and club facilities at the entrance. "We have brought Beverly Hills right to your doorstep," said a promotional video.

Though bars at the club eventually will serve alcohol, only soft drinks were dispensed at the windy gala yesterday night. A string octet played classical music on the edge of the course. A pro shop inside the clubhouse sold Trump International Golf Club baseball caps for 150 dirhams ($40) and Trump-branded golf balls for ($5.50). Absent were the red "Make America Great Again" caps made famous by Trump's campaign. Both sons gave brief remarks at the opening, neither touching on their father's new job. Donald Jr instead applauded Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. "It's truly awe inspiring," he said. "In Dubai, if you can envision it, you can build it."

Earlier yesterday, Eric and Donald Jr attended a private luncheon at DAMAC chairman Hussain Sajwani's mansion on Dubai's man-made Palm Jumeirah archipelago, speaking underneath an ornamental clock whose face spelled "SAJWANI VILLA". "It's rare in the world where you can be such great friends with a partner and that's what we have right here," Eric Trump said. "Hussain, he is an amazing person and DAMAC is an amazing company." The two Trump brothers met with the over 80 people gathered at the event, attendee Niraj Masand told AP. They were "expressing their gratitude to Mr Sajwani, who is the chairman of DAMAC, and sort of expressing their happiness to meet with all the partners," said Masand, a director of the real estate firm Banke International.

Guests wearing traditional dress, including white gandouras and black abayas, mingled with others in suits and fur wraps. While the deal predates Trump's 2016 election, the golf club's opening coincides with controversy over the policies and politics of the tycoon president, and potential conflicts of interest. The correlation between wealth and politics is nothing new, and American presidents are not required by law to give up their investments or businesses.

Critics have raised questions over the ethics and constitutionality of Trump's ties to governments and business executives. Trump says he has transferred control of the Trump Organization to his two eldest sons, and the business empire has said it will not pursue new deals outside the United States. But despite calls by ethics watchdogs, the president has resisted complete divestment from his businesses.

Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) on Jan 23 filed a lawsuit citing payments from guests at his hotels - and golf courses - as well as leases with foreign governments as forms of cash and favors. The suit, which does not seek monetary damages, cites the emoluments clause, a scantly noticed passage in the US constitution. The clause originally took aim at then-ambassador Benjamin Franklin, later a founding father of the United States, after he accepted a customary bejewelled snuffbox from French monarch Louis XVI. It holds that "no Person holding any Office... shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present" from any foreign state.

At a press conference in January, Trump, at the time still president-elect, said he had rejected a new $2-billion deal in Dubai with DAMAC - as a personal and not official move. "I didn't have to turn it down," he said. "But I have a no-conflict-of-interest provision as president." The Dubai golf course, however, has raised concerns not only over a potential conflict of interest but also Trump's policies on Muslim-majority countries.

Trump's ties to Sajwani, whose $3.2-billion net worth last year landed him on Forbes' list of world billionaires, first sparked controversy during the Republican outsider's presidential campaign. Trump's 2015 call for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims" entering the US led major regional retailer "Lifestyle" to pull Trump-branded home decor items from its shelves out of respect for its customers. DAMAC Properties, which declined to comment on Trump's remarks, said at the time that the golf club development would remain unaffected.

And it has resulted in an 18-hole golf course designed by Gil Hanse, the architect behind the Rio 2016 Olympics course. A 2014 video posted on YouTube channel "Arabian Golf TV" shows Trump in his trademark red tie swinging a club in slow motion before flashing two thumbs up, flanked by Sajwani and a smiling Ivanka Trump, his daughter. On Nov 25, two weeks after Trump's against-the-odds electoral triumph, Sajwani posted on his Instagram a shot of the three on the golfing green apparently taken the same day.

Sajwani, an Emirati whom Forbes has called "the Donald of Dubai", himself received a warm shout-out at Trump's New Year's Eve bash. "Hussain and the whole family, the most beautiful people, are here from Dubai tonight and they're seeing it and they love it," Trump said from the stage at his Mar-a-Lago club in sunny Florida. The United Arab Emirates was not among the seven mostly Muslim countries named on Trump's now-suspended travel ban.

Trips abroad by Trump's two sons are expected to continue. Before Trump's inauguration, his son Eric visited the Trump Tower Punta del Este in Uruguay to check on the tower's progress and personally greet buyers. A Trump hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia, is also expected to soon host Trump's sons.

Separately, Trump's defense secretary arrived in the UAE yesterday for talks with one of Washington's closest allies in the Middle East. Jim Mattis, on his debut trip to the region as Pentagon chief, was expected to meet Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahayan and US embassy representatives. US officials have not disclosed details about his agenda.

In late January, Trump and the crown prince spoke by telephone and the White House said they had discussed a proposal for safe zones for Syrian refugees displaced by the conflict. Mattis, a retired Marine general who is reviewing US war plans against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, is a familiar figure to Gulf Arab rulers. A former leader of Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the region, Mattis said in his Senate confirmation hearings that Iran was "the biggest destabilizing force in the Middle East and its policies are contrary to our interests."

Such views play well with Gulf Arabs, who hope Trump's administration will check what they see as a surge of Iranian support for paramilitary allies in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon and for fellow Shiites in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia's oil-producing Eastern Province. The UAE is also a key US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda in Yemen. - Agencies