WASHINGTON (AP) – To quiet concerns over foreign influence, President Donald Trump promised no new international business deals while in office. Instead, Trump’s business is returning to a very old one.
The Trump family’s re-engagement in a Dominican resort deal signed a decade ago surfaced unexpectedly last week, when Eric Trump, an executive vice president, was photographed touring the property Feb. 2 with developers Ricardo and Fernando Hazoury.
In a press release, the Hazoury brothers called their relationship with Eric Trump “incredibly strong.” But the relationship has been rocky: Eric Trump accused the brothers of “textbook fraud” in a 2012 lawsuit over allegedly hidden property sales.
A firm plan for further Trump-licensed development at Cap Cana, a luxury beachfront resort just minutes from one of the Dominican Republic’s largest airports, isn’t yet in place. But the prospect for a resumption of the 2007 licensing deal would test the limits of Donald Trump’s pledge to halt new international Trump-branded projects during his presidency.
The renewed pursuit of the project shows that the company believes it has latitude to carry on significant new activity overseas, despite the president’s pledge to avoid new foreign development deals.