Politics - News Analysis

Trump’s New Resort in Oman Will Pay Workers Just $340 a Month to Work Long Days in 110 Degree Weather

A swanky cliffside hotel opening up in the Gulf state of Oman will offer guests infinity pools, fine dining, and a beautiful 360-degree view of the ocean, and of course, the Trump Organization is involved in this; describing the hotel as a “new affluent community.” This “community” will include pricey retail, a gated promenade, and an 18,000-square-foot golf course designed and managed by former president Donald Trump’s company.

But do you know who won’t be enjoying the luxuries this hotel has to offer?

The people working on this monstrosity. They are being forced to work in deadly heat — the forecast for this week shows temperatures as high as 107 degrees Fahrenheit in Oman’s capital city, Insider reports. The workers are definitely being exploited badly, with migrant workers earning as little as $340 a month, according to a report from The New York Times on Tuesday.

The venture is backed by a Saudi real estate firm that recruited the Trump Organization, and plans are in the works to build an exclusive new city overlooking the Gulf of Oman. This has been denounced by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) because this is an apparent conflict of interest while Trump runs for president again.

And while people work in potentially heat-stroke-provoking weather, this investment opportunity required no money down and has already earned the Trump Organization $5 million. Of course, it helped that Trump, during his presidency, curried favor with the region’s autocrats. Oman is led by an unelected sultan.

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who fostered a relationship with the Saudis during the former president’s term, also received a very comfy $2 billion from the Saudi government almost as soon as he left office.

“It is the kind of corruption our founding fathers most worried about,” Virginia Canter the chief ethics counsel to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told the Times.

The Trump Organization won’t own the properties bearing the ex-president’s name. It will, however, oversee their management for 30 years.

And critics of this project say that Oman is not considered a safe and welcoming environment for foreign labor.

“Migrant workers are often not paid their full wages, forced to work excessively long hours, and denied adequate food and living conditions,” Human Rights Watch noted in a 2021 report. Workers attempting to leave abusive or neglectful employers “risk imprisonment and deportation,” the group reports.

Right now, more than a thousand migrant workers — mostly hailing from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are working 10-hour shifts before they can retire to the trailers that line the emerging city. The government of Oman claims that when the city is finished, the project will serve as the world’s “largest sustainable community.”

So once again, wealthy people will take advantage of the labor of the poor and Trump couldn’t care less. They are impoverished brown people working elsewhere than the U.S. This man will exploit migrants one way or another it seems.

His wall may have been a big failure but it wasn’t through a lack of trying.

meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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