Donald Trump is betting big on Oman. Since September 2024, the president has been developing a grand project in the Middle Eastern sultanate—a sprawling golf course, a hotel, and seaside villas—all perched over the shimmering Gulf of Oman. A livestream of the site shows a sun-drenched stretch of water, edged by brown desert rock outcroppings, where it’s easy to imagine minimalist boxy units, cantilevered 400 feet above the sea, starting at just $1 million.

Built by Saudi real estate developer Dar Global on land provided by the Omani government outside its capital city of Muscat, all those seaside views and quiet luxury could be a gold mine for the US president. In 2024, he earned $1 million in licensing fees from the deal. The project’s website boasts of its “ideal location.” It offers “easy access” to the Persian Gulf, which sits just a few hundred miles to the northwest via the Strait of Hormuz. Oman, the website notes, is “one of the safest countries in the world.”

Fast-forward to March 2. Two days after Trump and his Israeli allies launched a surprise attack on Iran, Iranian drones struck an oil tanker about 90 miles offshore from the resort’s proposed location. It wasn’t exactly close, but it was closer than most luxury investors would probably be comfortable with—and it’s a reminder that Muscat is separated from Iran by a gulf that is 210 miles at its widest.

In the weeks that followed, shipping through the Straight of Hormuz ground to a near standstill. The war disrupted the world economy, Trump’s political fortunes, and, potentially, his vast........

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