Trump family’s cash registers ring as financial meltdown plays out

MIAMI: The financial market meltdown was under way when President Donald Trump boarded Air Force One on his way to Florida on Thursday for a doubleheader of sorts: a Saudi-backed golf tournament at his family’s Miami resort and a weekend of fundraisers attracting hundreds of donors to his Palm Beach club.

It was a fresh reminder that in his second term, Trump has continued to find ways to drive business to his family-owned real estate ventures, a practice he has sustained even when his work in Washington has caused worldwide financial turmoil.

President Donald Trump disembarks Marine One on the ninth hole during previews for LIV Golf Miami at Trump National Doral, Miami. Credit: Getty Images

The Trump family monetisation weekend started on Thursday night (US time), as crowds began to form at both the Trump National Doral resort near Miami International Airport and at his Mar-a-Lago resort 110 kilometres up the coast.

Trump landed on the edge of one of the golf courses in a military helicopter just in time for dinner at Doral. The next day, LIV Golf, the breakaway professional league backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, was scheduled to hold a tournament at the course for the fourth time.

On Thursday at Mar-a-Lago, hundreds of guests gathered for the American Patriots Gala, a conservative fundraiser that featured Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and President Javier Milei of Argentina, who told his supporters back home that he was hoping to catch up with Trump, seemingly unaware that Trump was double-booked at two of his family properties that night.

And that was just the weekend’s lead-up.

Trump had ordered a new set of global tariffs on Wednesday from the White House using his trademark Sharpie, a version of which is on sale at Mar-a-Lago for $US3.

The announcement set off one of the largest market crashes in American history, erasing $US5 trillion ($8.3 trillion) in market value from companies in the S&P 500 in just two days. Trump has said his policy would reverse what he calls unfair trade practices and that eventually the “markets are going to boom”.

LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed league, has sponsored a tournament at the Trump family’s Miami golf resort four times.Credit: NYT

On Friday, as markets continued to tumble, thousands of golf fans visited Doral, as did Eric Trump, Trump’s son, and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s $US925 billion sovereign wealth fund. Al-Rumayyan is also the chair of LIV Golf and was there to see its stars compete.

“It is a nice club,” Al-Rumayyan said as he walked around the golf course watching the players tee off.

LIV Golf – a venture intended to lift the Saudi profile worldwide even as it has burnt through hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds – is styled as a day-long party, with club music pumping out of speakers lining tournament courses, and machines dispensing wine and large beers. On Friday, fans watched a bit of golf and danced on the edges of the course. Others in MAGA hats walked around smoking cigars.

In short, the economic turbulence seemed far away.

“You are all looking a little too stiff!” Matt Rogers, a LIV Golf announcer, yelled into a microphone, blasting his message across the greens as the first group of golfers on Friday prepared to play with dance music blaring in the background. “You need to turn this up! This is LIV Golf.”

Every room at the 643-room Trump Doral, including the $US13,000-a-night presidential suite, was sold out through the weekend. Not a seat could be found at the BLT Prime steakhouse bar, where a porterhouse cost $US130.

President Donald Trump reads the Wall Street Journal as he returns to his Mar-a-Lago club from Trump National Golf Club on Saturday.Credit: AP

“This is the perfect venue,” Eric Trump said as he strolled the golf course on Friday.

He had driven his father in a golf cart from the military helicopter to the resort dinner the day before, as the festivities over the big moneymaking weekend were getting under way.

The president spent much of Friday at yet another Trump family venue, Trump International Golf Club, not far from Mar-a-Lago, sending out social media messages during the day, including “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE.”

By Friday night, the centre of attention had shifted back to Mar-a-Lago, as Trump held another in a series of $US1 million-a-head dinners at his private club in Palm Beach.

Since he was elected in November, Trump has hosted at least four of the fundraisers, including one in December, two in March and the one on Friday night, with a fifth planned for April 24.

The fundraisers unfold in similar ways, according to people who have attended them.

Roughly 20 people gather around a candlelit table with big white flowers in the club’s “White and Gold Room” after a photo session. Trump speaks, then listens to the guests discuss their businesses, one by one. In just an hour or two, he can raise as much as $US20 million – a great return on his time investment, associates say.

Attendees at some of the post-election dinners at Mar-a-Lago, hosted by MAGA Inc, one of Trump’s political action committees, have included casino owner Miriam Adelson, sugar magnate Pepe Fanjul and James Taiclet, CEO of Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest military contractor, along with representatives from the cryptocurrency and energy industries.

On Friday, Ronald S. Lauder, the cosmetics heir, and Steve Wynn, a former casino executive, both billionaires, were among the guests at the Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, according to two people briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the event.

Eric Trump greeted a guest on the first day of LIV Golf’s tournament at Trump National Doral. Credit: NYT

The dinners have been just the start. Mar-a-Lago remains a popular site for Republican candidates to host their own fundraisers, Federal Election Commission records show.

It is not clear to some Republicans why Trump has been raising money so aggressively, according to eight people involved in conservative fundraising who have kept track of Trump’s efforts. Never before has a president ineligible for re-election vacuumed up so much money for a super PAC.

Some of Trump’s associates believe that it is prudent to fundraise when the money is available, as corporate interests and others seek to get access to the president or make amends for perceived slights, people close to him acknowledge.

The packed agendas at the two Trump venues recalled the constant buzz and spending by lobbyists, members of Congress and foreign leaders at Trump International Hotel in Washington before the Trump family sold its lease after Trump’s first term.

In addition to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, top sponsors of the Doral golf tournament included Aramco, the Saudi oil company; Riyadh Air, the airline owned by the sovereign wealth fund; and TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media company whose fate Trump is helping to decide, according to a large billboard outside one of the event’s party tents.

President Donald Trump and his son Eric go golfing in Florida as markets tank.Credit: Getty Images

Trump’s merchandise shops – there are at least three at Doral – were also doing a swift business, selling everything from a $US550 Trump-branded crystal-studded purse to $US18 Doral-branded paperweights made in China. The store clerk said he did not know if new tariffs on imported products would mean price increases.

Fans in the crowd said they had travelled from as far as South Africa to attend the event. Some purchased special tickets that cost as much as $US1400 to enter exclusive party areas with free drinks and food – tickets that were sold out as of Saturday.

In interviews, tournament attendees and others said that they did not mind the disconnect between the Wall Street meltdown and the events at the Trump properties.

“The sky is falling every day,” said Mike Atwell, a Key Largo, Florida, restaurant owner who was attending the LIV event with his wife enjoying lunch and drinks. “When you are happy, you drink. When you are sad, you drink. It all works out.”

Tyrell Davis, a 39-year-old entrepreneur spending Saturday afternoon in Palm Beach, said that he admired Trump for focusing on his own businesses while also implementing tariffs that he believed would benefit Americans.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s $925 billion sovereign wealth fund and chairman of LIV Golf, called Trump’s golf club “nice”.Credit: Getty Images

Davis said that the United States had given away money to other countries for years while not investing in American cities, and that it only made sense Trump would continue to bolster his own businesses while in office.

“It’s all about business and money,” Davis said. “That’s what it’s all about. America is a business. It’s a corporation.”

On Saturday, as the tournament continued at Doral, Trump showed up at yet another family golf course, in Jupiter, Florida, which is holding its own, more modest tournament.

Good news was announced by the White House staff: “The president won his second-round match-up of the senior club championship today in Jupiter, Florida, and advances to the championship round on Sunday.” Reporters and photographers were prohibited from watching him play, and were held down the street at a coffee shop.

As Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago, one of his political committees sent out an offer to his followers: they could buy a signed replica of his executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The minimum contribution was $US50.

“I want you to have a PIECE OF HISTORY in your home,” Trump said in the solicitation.

The White House then announced that there would be no more public events Saturday.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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