A Syrian Billionaire Reportedly Bribed His Way Into Trump's Circle With a Golf Course, a Resort Deal and an Engraved Stone

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.

At the centre of the account is Mohamad Al-Khayyat, one of three brothers whose family business is linked to more than $12 billion (£9.6 billion) in Syrian government-sponsored reconstruction contracts.

An investigation by The 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.

The Foundation Stone and the Capitol Hill Campaign

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 the Caesar 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.

A Joint Venture With the Trump Family in Albania

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 a joint venture with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to 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.

Corporate filings reviewed by the Albanian investigative outlet VoxNews show 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.

Parallel to the family's business dealings, the Al-Khayyat brothers were backed politically by Thomas Barrack, a billionaire investor and decades-long confidant of President Trump. Barrack was appointed US Ambassador to Turkey in April 2025 and named Trump's Special Envoy for Syria on 23 May 2025. In a statement published by the US Embassy in Ankara, Barrack said the lifting of sanctions would 'give the people of Syria a chance for a better future' and expressed pride in executing the president's vision.

The Caesar Act Repeal and the Contracts That Followed

The lobbying campaign culminated on 18 December 2025, when President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 into law. Section 8369 of the legislation, entitled 'Repeal of Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019,' formally abolished the sanctions framework that had been in place since 2020. The Senate had passed the bill by a vote of 77 to 20.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was a principal architect of the repeal provision. In a statement published by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she said 'Today's repeal of the Caesar Act is a decisive step toward giving the Syrian people a real chance to rebuild after decades of unimaginable suffering.' Her statement also credited Ambassador Barrack for 'relentless diplomacy' and singled out Representative Wilson for bipartisan leadership.

The repeal is conditional. Under Public Law 119-60, the president must submit a report to Congress every 180 days for four years certifying that Syria's government is cooperating against ISIS, protecting minorities and avoiding unilateral military action against its neighbours. Legal analysts at Just Security note that the law includes no mandatory snapback provision that would automatically reimpose sanctions if conditions are not met, leaving enforcement largely at the executive's discretion.

Following the repeal, the Al-Khayyat family moved quickly to capitalise on the opening. According to reporting corroborated across multiple outlets, the brothers secured contracts related to the redevelopment of Damascus Airport, the construction of power plants and natural-gas projects in partnership with American companies. There is also reported discussion of Kushner and the Khayyats partnering on real estate projects inside Syria now that the statutory barrier to financing has been removed.

Whether Washington's pivot on Syria reflects sound foreign policy or a blurring of presidential family business interests with statecraft, the Al-Khayyat episode has provided a template for how access in Trump's second term is allegedly being secured, and sold.