Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner for one
The lobbying campaign achieved success on Saturday, when
Trump announced he had begun “major
combat operations in Iran.” Trump launched a war even though U.S.
intelligence assessed that Iran posed no
imminent threat to the United States. In June 2025, Trump publicly
declared that more limited strikes “completely
obliterated Iran’s nuclear capability.”
MBS’s influence with Trump has grown as the Saudi government
has invested billions in projects that personally enrich Trump and his
son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the
largest investor in Jared Kushner’s private equity fund, Affinity Partners. PIF
invested $2 billion in Affinity Partners in 2021, even though the PIF committee
that screens investments recommended
rejecting Kushner’s proposal, citing “inexperience” and “excessive” fees.
The committee’s recommendation was overruled by MBS, who heads PIF’s Board of
Directors.
PIF pays Kushner 1.25%
of its investment, or $25 million, annually. The Senate Finance Committee
estimates that Kushner will be paid $137 million in management fees from PIF by
August 2026. Further, in September 2025, PIF, Affinity Partners, and others
jointly acquired Electronic Arts, the publisher of iconic video games like The
Sims and Madden NFL, for $55
billion. The deal, which is the largest leveraged buyout in history, will
likely be very lucrative for Kushner.
In February 2024, Axios’
Dan Primack asked Kushner whether his business relationship with foreign
governments would make it “very difficult… to do any sort of foreign policy
work” moving forward. “I’m an investor now,” Kushner replied. “I served in
government, and I think my track record is pretty impeccable. Now I’m a private
investor.”
Yet, after Trump took office, Kushner resumed his central role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. In an October 2025 interview on 60 Minutes, Kushner argued that financial conflicts made him and Witkoff more effective.
“What people call conflicts of interests, Steve and I call
experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world,”
Kushner said.
CNN reported that
both Saudi Arabia and the UAE lobbied Trump to strike Iran. Like Saudi Arabia,
the UAE has significant financial ties to Kushner and Trump.
The UAE is another major backer of Affinity Partners,
directly investing about $200
million with Kushner’s firm. Additional money came via Lunate, a supposedly
private Abu Dhabi investment firm that is financed by government money and tied
to the UAE’s sovereign wealth funds.
Witkoff is the co-founder of the crypto firm World Liberty Financial (WLF) and retains an 8-figure stake in the company. Trump and his family also own significant pieces of the company.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security advisor and head of the country’s largest sovereign wealth fund, purchased 49% of WLF days before Trump’s inauguration.
Of the $250 million paid up front
by the UAE, $187 million was directed to Trump family entities and $31 million
to the Witkoff family. In May 2025, MGX, a company controlled by Tahnoon,
purchased $2
billion of crypto tokens from WLF.
Following the conclusion of the mediation on Thursday,
Kushner and Witkoff “ominously
issued no statement,” and the pair was reportedly “disappointed“
by the Iranian negotiating position. After presumably being debriefed by
Kushner, Trump said, “we’re
not thrilled with the way they’re negotiating.” According to Trump, it
would be “wonderful” if the Iranians “negotiated in … good faith and conscience
but they are not getting there so far.”
The new Iran War comes weeks after PIF financed a $7 billion
development deal in Saudi Arabia with the Trump Organization. Under the
agreement, Dar Global, a developer with close ties to the Saudi government,
will build a “Trump-branded hotel and golf course,” along with “500
mansions, priced between $6.7 million and $24 million.” The project is part
of Diriyah, a $63 billion development funded entirely by PIF.
When Trump visited Saudi Arabia in May 2025, MBS took him on
a tour of Diriyah and showed him a model of the development. According to Jerry
Inzerillo, who heads the Diriyah Company, a PIF subsidiary, Trump was “amazed“
with the quality and scale of the project.
Trump maintains full ownership of the Trump Organization and will profit from
the deal. Typically, these deals involve the developer paying millions in fees
simply to license the Trump name. About 80%
of the money will flow directly to Trump, according to Forbes’
reporting on similar deals. (The Trump Organization has been nominally
transferred to a trust controlled by his son, Donald Trump Jr. — an arrangement
ethics experts have dismissed as meaningless.)
While Trump discussed a potential war with Iran in multiple
calls with MBS, he has spent little time justifying the war to the American
people. In lieu of a traditional live address from the Oval Office, Trump
announced the war in a short, edited video,
delivered in a baseball cap and posted on his social network, Truth Social. The
video was recorded at his Florida home and private club, Mar-a-Lago. On
Saturday night, Trump attended a $1 million-per-plate fundraiser there for the
primary pro-Trump Super PAC, MAGA Inc.
After the beginning of hostilities on Saturday, Iran
launched attacks on the Saudi capital of Riyadh and numerous
targets in the UAE. In response, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs
released a statement saying it would “mobilize
all its capabilities“ against Iranian aggression, and the UAE warned Iran
of “grave
consequences.”
By Sunday, the war claimed the lives of three U.S. service
members and hundreds of Iranians.
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Information by Judd Legum
