A Syrian-born billionaire allegedly used a Trump-branded golf course, an engraved foundation stone and a multi-billion-pound resort partnership to curry favour with Washington insiders, as new reporting reveals how foreign business interests may have shaped the repeal of one of the United States' most stringent sanctions regimes.
An investigation byThe New York Times, published on 19 April 2026, traced how the family allegedly leveraged the Trump name as a tool of political negotiation, cultivating at least a dozen members of Congress while their company's fortunes depended on dismantling a sanctions law that blocked international financing of the Syrian rebuild.
In the summer of 2025, Mohamad Al-Khayyat secured a meeting with Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina and presented an ambitious vision for Syria's Mediterranean coast. The proposed development included a cruise-ship port, a polo club, a Bugatti showroom and a luxury golf course designed to signal Syria's re-entry into global investment. Wilson reportedly suggested branding the complex as a 'Trump National Golf Course,' believing the name alone could capture the White House's attention.
Al-Khayyat later told the newspaper that a Trump-branded resort had already been part of his concept. Weeks after the initial meeting, he returned to Washington carrying a symbolic foundation stone carved with the Trump family crest and labelled 'Trump International Golf Club, Syria.' He presented the stone to Wilson in his Capitol Hill office for delivery to the White House, a gesture that, according to the Times' account, illustrated how the Trump brand had become a currency in foreign lobbying.
The lobbying effort was broader than a single symbolic gift. According to the investigation, the Al-Khayyat family attended a candlelight inauguration dinner with a high donation threshold and joined congressional meetings to advocate for the permanent removal of theCaesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, the sweeping sanctions law that penalised the former Assad government and effectively barred international banks from financing Syrian reconstruction. The family's lobbying aligned with a bipartisan legislative push; a repeal effort led by Representative Pramila Jayapal and including Wilson had already been announced in June 2025.
David Warrington, a spokesman for President Trump, told The New York Times 'President Trump performs his constitutional duties in an ethically sound manner and to suggest otherwise is either ill-informed or malicious.' The Trump Organisation also said there was no deal and no discussions under way regarding any golf project in Syria.
While Mohamad Al-Khayyat lobbied in Washington, his brothers Moutaz and Ramez were pursuing a separate and more tangible financial relationship with Trump's family. The two older brothers entered into ajoint venture with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trumpto co-finance and manage a £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) luxury resort on Sazan Island in Albania, a former Soviet military base in the Mediterranean. The Albanian government granted final approval for the development in December 2024, weeks after Donald Trump's re-election.
What began as a construction contract grew into full co-ownership. Ramez Al-Khayyat confirmed the partnership directly to The New York Times, stating 'We are investing in the holding company to make sure it has sufficient capital. So it is a joint venture between the two companies, and we are actually managing it together.' Ivanka Trump travelled to Albania in January 2025 to meet Ramez Al-Khayyat alongside architects and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to discuss the project's design.
This should be on the front page of every newspaper in America.A Syrian billionaire needed U.S. sanctions lifted so he could cash in on $12 billion in reconstruction contracts.In an attempt to influence American foreign policy, he proposed a Trump-branded golf course, cut…
Corporate filings reviewed by the Albanian investigative outletVoxNewsshow that the implementing company, 'Sazan Operations,' was registered on 1 April 2026 and is controlled through a network of six foreign companies ultimately linked to the Khayyat brothers, whose businesses are based in Qatar. Kushner's private equity firm, Affinity Partners, which has received billions in capital commitments from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, is the public face of the project. Both the Khayyat family and a Kushner spokesman stated that their financial partnership has no connection to efforts to repeal the Caesar Act.
Source: International Business Times UK
