Trump’s Gulf deal-making spree also benefited Elon Musk and his family

DUBAI – US President Donald Trump’s

recent trip to the Persian Gulf

was notable for the ways that US foreign policy overlapped with his family’s business interests.

But another powerful White House figure also cut lucrative deals in the region last week: Mr Elon Musk.

Tagging along on Mr Trump’s state visit to Saudi Arabia last week, Mr Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, announced that his company SpaceX had secured approval to provide its Starlink satellite internet services to companies there.

As Mr Trump carried on to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where the financial district’s towers were illuminated to resemble American flags, Mr Musk’s company Neuralink announced a deal.

That company, which makes implantable brain chips, said it would conduct a clinical trial in Abu Dhabi with the local Health Ministry.

The terms of both deals were not disclosed. On May 15, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was in talks over providing internet service to Emirates Airlines, which is owned by the government.

Mr Musk

occupies a unique role

, even for an administration that has shattered norms around governance and private deal-making. He has attended Cabinet meetings and wields incredible power to cut programmes across the government – all while operating companies that profit from federal spending and foreign contracts.

He and his family have riches at stake in the Persian Gulf, a region whose autocratic monarchies have tried to cultivate closer ties to the West.

For years, Mr Musk’s companies have raised money from government-linked and regional funds in the Persian Gulf.

That includes Vy Capital, a Dubai, UAE-based firm that has backed at least five Musk-led businesses. SpaceX provides launch services for some UAE satellites, and Mr Musk’s tunnelling firm, The Boring Company, inked an agreement with Dubai’s transit authority in February to build a transport system under the city.

Mr Musk said last week in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that he would like to see the Boring Company work with Saudi Arabia as well.

Dr Matthew Hedges, a researcher at Durham University in England and an expert on the UAE security apparatus, said that Persian Gulf intelligence services were likely to look for people within Mr Trump’s “personalised power structure” with access to the President but who have few security checks around them, making Mr Musk a prime target. NYTIMES