The desert pharaohs: Gulf monarchs, Trump, and the great betrayal of Palestine and the Islamic conscience

In the annals of modern statecraft, there are few spectacles as garish, or as morally bankrupt, as the partnership between the Gulf monarchies and Donald Trump now serving his second term as President of the United States. These family dynasties, gilded in petro-wealth and at times draped in religious symbolism, have again proven that their governing creed is not Islam, humanity or values, but opportunism.

Trump, the perennial demagogue of American nativism, has returned to power with the same contempt for Muslims he displayed during his first term. And yet, far from being treated as a pariah by the self-proclaimed custodian of the Islamic holy sites and the other Gulf rulers, he has been embraced. Welcomed. Celebrated. Why? Because business is booming. Trump’s brand is now etched onto the glass and steel skylines of Doha and Dubai, where moral compromise is but the cost of doing business.

Last week, The Washington Post revealed that the Trump Organization had signed a new real estate and golf course deal in Qatar with Qatari Diar, a firm owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund and chaired by a senior government minister. The project marketed with glitz and beachfront luxury follows closely on the heels of Trump-branded developments in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, all orchestrated by Dar Global, a firm with deep ties to the Saudi state. This is not free-market capitalism. This is transactional fealty: Gulf regimes trading national dignity for the personal access and protection from the White House.

Trump’s son Eric has been touring the region like a monarch-in-law, promoting these ventures while attending cryptocurrency conferences and luxury branding galas. His father, meanwhile, prepares for a state visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, a return to the very capitals that fuelled the Trump family’s commercial revival during and after his first presidency.

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What clearer indictment is there of these regimes’ priorities? Gaza lies in ruins, pummelled by American made weapons and Israeli impunity, while these potentates will smile for photo-ops with the very man who moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, cut aid to Palestinian refugees, and blessed Netanyahu’s maximalist vision. It is Kushner’s “peace” plan made manifest—one where Arab capitals normalise occupation in exchange for hotel towers, golf courses and the umbrella of American and Israeli protection for their family dynasties.

Let us be clear: this is not passive complicity; it is active collaboration. These deals are not arms-length commercial arrangements. They are strategic alignments, brokered by elites who view Palestine not as a moral cause, but as a stepping stool to their own ascent. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) warned of leaders who would betray the trust of their people and align with oppressors. The Qur’an describes them as mufsidun fi al-ard—corrupters on the earth.

These monarchs do not rule in the name of Islam. They rule in the name of wealth. Their palaces are not sanctuaries of justice but citadels of self-preservation. They have turned the Ummah into a market, the Prophet’s message into PR, and solidarity into a negotiating chip. When Trump denigrates Muslims or props up apartheid, they do not recoil—they invest.

In the UAE, a towering 80-story Trump International Hotel is planned to overlook Burj Khalifa. In Qatar, beachfront Trump villas promise luxury in a region where dignity is scarce. In Saudi Arabia, the same sovereign fund that bankrolls Trump’s golf courses also gave Jared Kushner $2 billion for his post-White House venture. Even Oman, long thought of as a neutral actor, is now implicated hosting a Trump-branded development on state-owned land, with the government taking a cut.

These rulers wear traditional garb, but their actions betray the prophetic legacy. They build mosques with one hand and bankroll normalisation with the other. Their wealth has insulated them from the consequences of their betrayal. But history, unlike investors, has a long memory.

When the reckoning comes, their names will not be remembered for wisdom, leadership, or piety. They will be remembered for selling the soul of a civilization to a country and a man who branded Muslim bans, cheered on settler colonialism, and used the sacred cause of Palestine as a bargaining chip in his family’s real estate portfolio.

Trump may be the current face of the empire, but the Gulf monarchs for decades are its enablers. And when the palaces crumble, when the towers fall, and when history delivers its verdict, their gilded complicity will shine no brighter than Pharaoh’s chariot beneath the sea.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.