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mahatmakanejeeves

(70,230 posts) Sun Apr 19, 2026, 03:49 PM 9 hrs ago

Syrian Billionaires Needed a Favor in Washington. They Invoked the Trump Name.

Source: New York Times

Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat, two of three Syrian-born brothers, at their company's headquarters in Doha, Qatar. Laura Boushnak for The New York Times

Syrian Billionaires Needed a Favor in Washington. They Invoked the Trump Name.

The attempt by the Khayyats to influence foreign policy while discussions are underway about potential Trump family deals is an increasingly common feature of the president's second term.

By Eric Lipton
Reporting from Syria, Qatar and Washington

April 19, 2026
Updated 10:20 a.m. ET

Last summer, Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, sat in his Capitol Hill office in rapt attention as Middle Eastern investors laid out their plans in a video call to develop coastal property in Syria.

A cruise ship port. A polo club. A Bugatti car showroom. A world-class golf course. All in a country that had just recently been torn apart by civil war.

Nor was this everything. While Mohamad Al-Khayyat, a powerful Syrian-born businessman, was pitching the proposal, his brothers were winning more than $12 billion in government-sponsored contracts to rebuild a wide swath of the devastated Syrian economy.

There was a hitch, though. The Khayyats needed a big favor from Congress with the support of President Trump: the permanent lifting of crippling sanctions imposed on Syria before the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/us/politics/trump-syria-khayyat.html

https://www.nytimes.com/by/eric-lipton

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Reposted by No More Mr. Nice Popehat
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social

NYT INVESTIGATION: As the Trump administration & Congress last year moved to repeal sanctions on Syria, the Qatar-based family that most stood to benefit was privately negotiating a real-estate partnership with Jared Kushner and proposing a Trump golf course in Syria www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/u...
— Eric Lipton NYT (@ericlipton.nytimes.com) 2026-04-19T12:25:58.146Z

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Eric Lipton NYT
‪@ericlipton.nytimes.com‬

NYT INVESTIGATION: As the Trump administration & Congress last year moved to repeal sanctions on Syria, the Qatar-based family that most stood to benefit was privately negotiating a real-estate partnership with Jared Kushner and proposing a Trump golf course in Syria
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/us/politics/trump-syria-khayyat.html

Syrian Billionaires Needed a Favor in Washington. They Invoked the Trump Name.
www.nytimes.com
8:26 AM · Apr 19, 2026
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3 replies

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Syrian Billionaires Needed a Favor in Washington. They Invoked the Trump Name. (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves 9 hrs ago OP

It's not that hard. A six-figure deposit to a certain crypto account... yourout 9 hrs ago #1

I feel as bad for the people of the ME as I do for us here in the US... slightlv 7 hrs ago #2

Kick, Always follow the money! Eric Lipton in the comments section ... cliffside 1 hr ago #3

yourout

(8,848 posts)

1. It's not that hard. A six-figure deposit to a certain crypto account...

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Sun Apr 19, 2026, 03:54 PM

9 hrs ago

Will get you pretty much anything you want.

slightlv

(7,848 posts)

2. I feel as bad for the people of the ME as I do for us here in the US...

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Sun Apr 19, 2026, 06:30 PM

7 hrs ago

we are all captives of the multi-millionaires. Until we find a way to put THEM in OUR class, we'll never have anything nice... not here, not there, not anywhere. Greed is greed everywhere you go, it seems; and they all help each other while we fight for the crumbs.

cliffside

(1,737 posts)

3. Kick, Always follow the money! Eric Lipton in the comments section ...

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 12:12 AM

1 hr ago

Eric Lipton in the comments section ...

"The New York Times has spent the last year examining how President Trump and his family have found ways to profit from his return to the White House.
Today, we examine a new case.

As the Trump administration and Congress last year moved to repeal sanctions on Syria, the Qatar-based family that most stood to benefit was privately negotiating a real-estate partnership with Jared Kushner and proposing a Trump golf course in Syria.

The Al Khayyat family--Syria natives now based in Qatar--have secured at least $12 billion in deals to help rebuild Syria, which is recovering from more than a decade of civil war. But they needed the U.S. to repeal sanctions on Syria for these projects to move ahead.
The White House, in a statement to The Times, said that the Al-Khayyat family dealings with the Trump family had no impact on President Trump’s support for the repeal of the Syria sanctions. And the Al-Khayyat family said their dealings with the Trump family was not meant as a way to influence the debate in Washington.

But this case shows the very unusual way that deals now often get done in the Trump era. Players seeking actions from Washington often create a financial tie to the Trump family. It is part of a pattern in Mr. Trump's second term."

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