Project channels payments to foundation of US-sanctioned billionaire
A group of Georgian developers plans this week to launch marketing for Trump Tower Tbilisi, a 70-story building that would be Georgia’s tallest, The Wall Street Journal reported. The branding deal was signed in May with the Trump Organization and advances at a moment when US relations with the former Soviet republic have soured over Tbilisi’s crackdown on dissent and its drift toward Russia.
The project, as the Journal reported, “strikes a note of particular foreign policy discord.” Georgia was once one of the US’s closest partners among former Soviet states: President George W. Bush flew to Tbilisi in 2005 to declare it a “beacon of Liberty,” and the country was a candidate to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Meanwhile, the project has given financial benefit to the family of Bidzina Ivanishvili, a Georgian billionaire sanctioned by the US in late 2024.
According to Georgian corporate records reviewed by the Journal, the developers struck a 2023 deal to buy the tower’s land from a foundation controlled by Ivanishvili’s family, agreeing to pay up to $85 million. A spokeswoman for the project told the Journal the deal was fully completed in July. Ivanishvili is widely viewed by analysts as the ultimate decision-maker in Georgia. He made a fortune in Russia before serving as the country’s prime minister from 2012 to 2013 and is now honorary chairman of Georgian Dream, the party he founded.
The US-Georgia relationship has deteriorated sharply. The Biden administration publicly criticized what it called democratic backsliding in Tbilisi, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to refer to Georgia as having an “anti-American government” at a hearing last year. The House of Representatives last year passed a bipartisan bill directing the US government to consider sanctions on current and former members of the Georgian parliament and other political leaders. “The Georgian Dream insults President Trump every day with its anti-American propaganda,” Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina who backed the bill, said in a statement. Representatives of Ivanishvili and Georgian Dream did not respond to requests for comment.
The Trump Organization dropped its first-term moratorium on foreign deals during Trump’s second term, and licensing income has surged. The Journal described the foreign Trump-tower market as “booming,” reporting that private developers from Abu Dhabi to Vietnam to the Maldives have lined up over the past three years to adorn their hotel and golf course projects with the Trump name. The president reported taking in $59 million from foreign property licensing deals last year, up from $45 million in 2024 — more than in any previously reported year, the Journal reported. Developers typically pay an upfront fee — recently around $5 million — and then a portion of revenue, though specifics vary. Trump has said his sons run the business on his behalf and that he is not involved. The Trump Organization declined to comment, and has previously denied any conflict of interest, saying the business dealings are kept separate from administration policy. A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. The White House has previously said Trump acts only in the best interests of the American public and that there are no conflicts of interest with his businesses.
Democrats and governance groups have said the income from around the globe introduces new potential conflicts to the president’s foreign agenda. Some of the developers paying the Trump Organization have other business before the US government, the Journal reported.
The current deal traces to a visit to Georgia last year by New York developer Alex Sapir, whose family is originally from Georgia and who built the Trump SoHo in New York. A person familiar with the development told the Journal that Sapir introduced the local developers to the Trump Organization. Months of negotiations followed. In May, a group of Georgian investors — including Samson Pkhakadze, president of the Wissol Group conglomerate, and Ilia Tsulaia, a former member of parliament aligned with Georgian Dream — flew to South Florida and signed an agreement with Eric Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Tsulaia said in a statement announcing the deal that the tower would create a “landmark that will transform the skyline and elevate Georgia’s presence on the global stage.” Tsulaia was also part of a delegation last year that traveled to Washington to lobby for better Georgian-US ties with lawmakers and administration officials. A former US official involved in those talks told the Journal that the delegation sought a smoother relationship with the Trump administration and potential sanctions relief. “There’s different flavors for each country,” the former official said. “They want a positive embrace.”
Giorgi Khishtovani, an economist and professor at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, told the Journal that the project is “mainly about having some kind of connection with the Trump administration” and that its purpose “may also be for PR reasons too.” Georgian analysts see the deal as a way of the business community making something of a peace offering to the Trump administration, signaling that they are still eager to keep an open relationship with the US at a time that diplomatic channels have been strained.
Georgian Dream was accused of fraud in a 2024 election that has since sparked nearly two years of regular street protests; the party has said its victory was legitimate. Critics have blamed Ivanishvili for what the Journal described as a sometimes-violent crackdown on the political opposition.
The Tbilisi tower is the second attempt to build a Trump-branded skyscraper in Georgia. About fifteen years ago, developers in the Black Sea resort city of Batumi paid the Trump Organization a roughly $1 million upfront fee to brand their tower Trump, but that deal later fell apart, the Journal reported.
While the Georgian government has moved closer to Russia and shelved plans to join the European Union, Tbilisi remains wary of becoming too reliant on Moscow while a fifth of its territory remains under Russian occupation since a 2008 invasion.