Inside Donald Trump’s lavish 86m superyacht Trump Princess

John Taylor

BOAT International: 28 March 2024

SOURCE: https://www.boatinternational.com/yachts/editorial-features/trump-princess-inside-donald-trumps-superyacht-kingdom-5kr

Better stay out of the Caribbean. I hear they’re bombing drug boats. This sure looks like a druglord’s boat.

“A certain level of quality.” That is the phrase that Donald Trump returns to again and again to explain just why he bought Adnan Khashoggi’s 86 metre yacht Nabila. And an explanation is needed.

After all, Trump doesn’t water-ski or go in for swimming in a big way, and he’s always tried to avoid the sun. As a matter of fact, he has never owned a big boat before. He doesn’t even particularly like boats. “I’m not into them,” he says with a shrug, “I’ve been on friends’ boats before and couldn’t get off fast enough.”

So why spend close to $30 million on a yacht? Trump will admit that she is an “incredible toy”, even “the ultimate toy”. But words like that make the whole venture seem frivolous, so he prefers to refer to the boat which he has re-named Trump Princess, as “a work of art.” And what makes her a work of art is, of course, the “level of quality”.

Pink bedroom for tweens.

To really appreciate the level of quality, Trump says you have to see the interior. That is where Khashoggi lavished money with utter abandon. Trump points out, for example, the walls of the cabins covered in chamois leather and bird’s eye maple.

Bathrooms are done not in marble but in onyx – and not just any onyx either, but onyx hand-carved by the finest craftsmen in Italy. Donald Trump bought Trump Princess, he says, “because I was buying a great piece of art at a ridiculously low price”.

Unlike Trump, Adnan Khashoggi [richest arms dealer ever] has always had a thing about boats. The arms dealer, who took advantage of connections with the Saudi royal family to amass a fortune worth around $3 billion at its peak, acquired his first yacht when he was 18 and traded up as his wealth increased.

In the 1970s Khashoggi owned two yachts and while these were impressive, neither made quite the naked assertion of fantastic wealth he required, so he commissioned the British designer Jon Bannenberg to design the most sumptuous, the most incredible yacht the world has seen.

“He wanted the best yacht in the world,” says Bannenberg, “and we achieved that at the time.” The vessel Bannenberg created cost $35 million to build, but Khashoggi also commissioned Italian designer Luigi Sturchio to produce the interior and that is believed to have cost more than the yacht itself.

8 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Donald Trump bought Trump Princess, he says, “because I was buying a great piece of art at a ridiculously low price

I assume that are pictures from when Khashoggi still owned the yacht, and all is now in gold plated

I met his UK ex wife Soraya once .

She did well , startedt as a waitress

in a cafe in Leicester.!