NEW YORK (AP) — Financial markets are volatile.

to accept from Qatar. Or that he effectively auctioned off the first destination on his first major foreign trip, heading to Saudi Arabia because the kingdom was ready to make big investments in U.S. companies.It’s not even that the Trump family has fast-growing business ties in the Middle East that run deep and offer the potential of vast profits.

Instead, it’s the idea that the combination of these things and more — deals that show the close ties between a family whose patriarch oversees the U.S. government and a region whose leaders are fond of currying favor through money and lavish gifts — could cause the United States to show preferential treatment to Middle Eastern leaders when it comes to American affairs of state.Before Trump began his visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, his sons Eric and Donald Jr. had already traveled the Middle East extensively in recent weeks. They were drumming up business for, which they are running in their father’s stead while he’s in the White House.

Eric Trump announced plans for an 80-story Trump Tower in Dubai, the UAE’s largest city. He also attended a recent cryptocurrency conference there with Zach Witkoff, a founder of the Trump family crypto company,, and son of Trump’s do-everything envoy to the Mideast,

“We are proud to expand our presence in the region,” Eric Trump said last month

that Trump Tower Dubai was set to start construction this fall.He asked the justices to block the order from U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland as the lawsuit plays out.

An appeals court previously refused to immediately to lift the block on DOGE access, though it split along ideological lines. Conservative judges in the minority said there’s no evidence that the team has done any “targeted snooping” or exposed personal information.The lawsuit was originally filed by a group of labor unions and retirees represented by the group Democracy Forward. The Supreme Court asked them for a response to the administration’s appeal by May 12.

More than two dozen lawsuits have been filed over DOGE’s work, which has included deep cuts at federal agencies and large-scale layoffs.Hollander found that DOGE’s efforts at Social Security amounted to a “fishing expedition” based on “little more than suspicion” of fraud.