Trump hid his right hand with make-up
Screenshot from X

Plans to build Australia's first and tallest Trump Tower have collapsed just three months after the deal was signed, with the local developer citing the US president's sliding public standing and the Iran war as the reason.

David Young, founder and CEO of Altus Property Group, told CNN in a statement that 'the Trump brand was increasingly unpopular in Australia,' pointing directly to the ongoing conflict with Iran as a turning point.

The 91-storey Trump International Hotel and Tower Gold Coast had been announced in February 2026 as the Trump Organization's first official project in Australia, with plans for a six-star hotel, Michelin-starred restaurants, and luxury apartments overlooking Surfers Paradise Beach. Its cancellation leaves a near-two-decade business relationship in ruins and hands opponents of the project a victory they had been pushing for since the moment the deal was made public.

A Valentine's Day Deal at Mar-a-Lago, Abandoned Within Weeks

The agreement was formalised on 14 February 2026, when Young flew to Mar-a-Lago to sign the contract with Eric Trump, who runs the Trump Organization alongside his brother Donald Jr. Young had told The Australian newspaper at the time that the tower 'will be an Australian, not American project,' and said he anticipated construction finishing before Brisbane hosts the 2032 Summer Olympics. That timeline is now moot.

The project's roots stretch back further than that signing ceremony. According to a blog post on the Altus website, Young first made contact in 2007 with a 'cold call to Ivanka Trump,' pitching himself as an Australian developer who wanted to build 'Australia's finest tourist property at Surfers Paradise.' It took nearly 20 years for that ambition to be formalised, and fewer than three months to fall apart.

The Trump Organization described the Gold Coast development as its 'first official project in Australia,' according to comments Eric Trump made at the time of the announcement. The organisation did not respond to CNN's request for comment following the cancellation.

What the 91-Storey Tower Would Have Contained

Per the February press release issued by Altus, the proposed tower would have been a 91-storey structure on Surfers Paradise Beach in Queensland, designed to become Australia's tallest building. It was planned to include a 285-room luxury six-star hotel, a high-end retail plaza, Michelin-starred restaurants, and residential apartments finished to Trump specifications.

Apartments were expected to sell for a minimum of £2.6 million (AUD$5 million/$3.5 million), offering direct views over the Pacific Ocean. Martin Hall, from the Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce, had praised the project as a 'gold option' for buyers, citing the area's pre-Olympic construction boom. That endorsement now stands as an artefact of a different moment.

No development application was ever submitted to Gold Coast City Council. Mayor Tom Tate confirmed this to CNN, stating plainly: 'This project was an agreement between two private parties. We didn't have a proposal to consider.' The tower existed, in planning terms, only as an announcement.

Brand Toxicity, a 140,000-Signature Petition, and a Mayor's Financial Theory

Young did not mince his words when explaining the cancellation. 'Let's just say that with the Iran war and everything else, the Trump brand was increasingly unpopular in Australia,' he told CNN. He also used the word 'toxic' to characterise the brand's current standing.

Public opposition had been fierce from the moment the project was revealed. A petition calling for the plan to be rejected had accumulated more than 26,000 signatures within days of the February announcement, as CNN reported at the time. By the time of the cancellation, that number had surpassed 140,000. One signatory wrote on the petition: 'Why would we want anything to do with Trump coming to our country. He is poison and needs to stay out of Australia in every single way.'

Mayor Tate, who had once dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and was publicly enthusiastic about the project, offered a different explanation for its collapse. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that financial disagreement between Altus and the Trump Organization may have played an equal role. 'The Trump Organization wants a lot more for their brand on the funding side of things, to operate it and the percentage of return,' Tate said. 'Meanwhile the developer's going, well, I'm putting in all of my money in and you're actually going to take quite a lot of profit, so I think that's why they're parting ways.'

Young spent 19 years building the relationship that would have put the Trump name on Australia's skyline; it took the Iran war three months to end it.

Writer's pick