Saudi Arabia Bailed Out A Cruise Ship Company With Close Ties To Trump
When the coronavirus hurt cruise giant Carnival Corporation, the Saudi crown prince’s fund stepped in to help its founder: a longtime Trump associate
President Donald Trump has spent weeks promising to protect cruise lines from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic. Now a fund that Trump ally Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman controls has revealed a big new stake in Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise operator.
The sudden change of fortunes for a company run by Micky Arison, a longtime Trump associate, could be as much about personal relationships and geopolitics as about business.
A Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) now owns more than 8% of Carnival. It held no stock in the firm at the start of 2020. The news prompted Carnival’s share price to climb 20% ― the company’s biggest percentage increase on record, The Wall Street Journal reported.
As of Thursday afternoon, the kingdom’s 43.5 million shares were worth more than $500 million.
By addressing one of Trump’s big current fixations, the Saudis may have secured undue influence on the president and U.S. foreign policy ― another quid pro quo for a president who’s proven transactional in his approach to global affairs.
Trump said at a March 19 briefing that he’d discussed the coronavirus crisis with Arison, Carnival’s chairman and founder, who helped sponsor the president’s old television show “The Apprentice” and is also the owner of the Miami Heat. The president praised Arison ― and the company’s share price rose by 7.5% that day.
On March 6, Trump privately told donors gathered at his Mar-a-Lago resort that he wanted to protect cruise companies, The Washington Post reported. And at a press conference on March 26, he applauded cruise lines as “big,” “great” and “very important” ― adding the following week, “we have to get those cruise ships moving along.”
The president and his team have also been in frequent contact with Riyadh in recent weeks, primarily over a Saudi plan to secure oil contracts that lowered prices and hurt U.S. fossil fuel producers. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the crown prince, known colloquially as MBS, on March 24, and Trump talked to him on April 2.