SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
President-elect Trump told a press conference this week that he would step back from running his company to prevent possible conflicts of interest once he's in office. And to demonstrate that, he said he'd just rejected a deal to develop a golf course.
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DONALD TRUMP: I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai - a number of deals. And I turned it down. I didn't have to turn it down.
SIMON: Trump may have turned down that deal. But he has two other golf courses being developed in Dubai. NPR's Jackie Northam reports.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: The Trump International Golf Course in Dubai is being built in a development of luxury villas and apartments in the desert. Joe Passov, a senior editor at golf.com, says it's expected to be an upscale course and clubhouse.
JOE PASSOV: The golf course is intended to be a private club. But they will allow some outside play while the membership is being built. It's expected to be a world-class golf course.
NORTHAM: The second Dubai course is being designed by golf legend Tiger Woods. Behind both projects is a Dubai-based company called DAMAC. It's run by a billionaire named Hussain Sajwani, who has done business with Trump for almost a decade. He flew into Florida for Trump's New Year's party. A video posted online shows the president-elect praising Sajwani.
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TRUMP: Hussain and the whole family from - those beautiful people from Dubai are here tonight. And they're seeing it, and they love it.
NORTHAM: Sajwani recently told NBC News that he's very happy that Trump has become president.
HUSSAIN SAJWANI: Oh, definitely. We think it's good news. We appreciate - in the last 12 months, his brand has become much, much bigger, more global.
NORTHAM: Golf.com's Passov says the Trump name can be a draw. But it could also backfire for the golf courses. Passov points to when Trump made disparaging remarks about Muslims and Mexicans.
PASSOV: Obviously, some people took exception to - including the organizations of golf. There were a few events in 2016 that left Trump properties - were either pulled, or a new sponsor came in.
NORTHAM: Trump's financial-disclosure filings showed he was paid up to $10 million for branding rights on the Dubai golf courses. Robert Gordon, a law professor at Stanford University, says Trump's relationship with the Dubai developer raises concerns about a clause in the U.S. Constitution which, he says, bars a president from accepting gifts from foreign governments and companies like Sajwani's.
ROBERT GORDON: It's a private-profit-making enterprise. But, also, it's one that's sponsored and, in many ways, supported by the government of Dubai. So it's tied up enough with a foreign government to make it problematic.
NORTHAM: Trump has said he will hand over the operation of his business to his adult children in order to prevent a possible conflict of interest. Gordon says that doesn't cut it.
GORDON: The problem's not so much who's running it as who benefits from the management and how. And a benefit to his sons is a benefit to him.
NORTHAM: Trump's first Dubai golf course is due to open in mid-February, just a few short weeks after he takes office. Jackie Northam, NPR News.