ABU DHABI — President Trump praised Emirati leaders Friday for their role in building a $780 million soccer stadium in Queens, proudly telling his hosts “I was born there.”
“We are spending over $300 million,” an Emirati dignitary told Trump with an image of New York City Football Club’s 25,000-seat Etihad Park — due to open in 2027 — projected on a large screen at an investment presentation.
“I know the area well. I grew up in Queens,” Trump said of the location in Willets Point, near Citi Field. “That’s great. That’s where they used to fix the cars, and a lot of other things got fixed there. It’s a great site.”
“You did well with this,” the president gushed. “I know this location. See, you were born here, I was born there. You picked a good location.”
Groundbreaking on Etihad Park, named after the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, took place in December 2024, almost exactly one month after Trump won a second term in November.
NYCFC is owned by the City Football Group, which is 81% owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group — founded and owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s vice president and a prominent member of the country’s royal family.
In addition to NYCFC, City Football Group owns majority shares of English club Manchester City, Melbourne City of the Australian A-League, Mumbai City of the Indian Super League and Italian club Palermo.
Trump’s hosts also touted their “phenomenal” deal announced May 7 to build a Disney park on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island — telling the president it would “bring a whole world of imagination to the region.”
“It’s good, it’s really good,” Trump said as he stood before an image of an Arabian-style Magic Castle mock-up at the first new Disney park being built in 15 years and the fifth outside the US.
Disneyland Abu Dhabi — which was already being advertised on billboards in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Trump began his trip Tuesday — is expected to open in the early 2030s.
Companies in the UAE have built other projects with American licensing, including an outpost of SeaWorld — the first one outside the US.
Emirati officials also touted a commitment from Emirates Global Aluminum to build a $4 billion smelter employing 1,000 people in Oklahoma.
“The money that’s made here, comes back to us,” Trump said of American companies expanding in the region.
“That’s amazing. These are all American companies. They’re doing very well here. We work together. So it’s not only the investment coming in by the hundreds of billions into our country, like you see in Oklahoma, like you see all over, many of the jobs with Exxon and Boeing and so many great companies — but we work together, and the money that’s made here comes back to us,” he said.
“And many of the contractors, I would imagine, come even for this, they come from here. Plus a lot of the entertainment itself comes here. So it’s, it’s an incredible thing.”
During the course of Trump’s three-country trip, the White House claimed the president had sealed investment deals worth more than $2 trillion.
“We have a president of the United States doing the selling,” Trump exclaimed at Friday’s business expo. “Do you think Biden could do this? I don’t think so.”
Among the biggest investments inked on Trump’s tour were Etihad and Qatar Airways agreeing to spend more than $110 billion on 238 American-made Boeing passenger jets.
In Saudi Arabia, Trump signed a deal to sell $142 billion in American-made weapons to the oil-rich kingdom, part of a $600 billion investment package.
Trump did not mention his own business empire’s under-development projects in each of the three nations he visited.
“We’re in pretty good shape. There’s no more wooing,” Trump summed up his trip before returning to Washington.
“I’ve been friends with these leaders, the key leaders in particular that we saw over the last three, four days, five days, and they’re great people. They’re great people, and they love our country, and we love them.”