US President Donald Trump's links to Azerbaijan were once again making the headlines on July 11. After revelations about the Trump Organisation's cooperation with an allegedly corrupt local tycoon for a Trump Tower franchise in Baku, Trump is now under fire for his ties with Emin Agalarov, an Azerbaijani pop star and President Ilham Aliyev's former son-in-law.

Trump cannot deny his ties to the singer. In 2013, he made a cameo appearance in one of his music videos, in which the magnate "fires" Agalarov, Apprentice TV show-style.

Agalarov's name has surfaced again as part of the investigation of the Trump campaign's ties with the Kremlin. The singer's agent in the US, former British tabloid journalist Rob Goldstone, claimed in a statement on July 10 that Agalarov advised him to set up a meeting between the Trump campaign and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer that claimed to have damaging information about Trump's then opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Goldstone set up the proposed meeting, attended by Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and then campaign manager Paul Manafort.

On July 11, Donald Trump Jr, facing imminent revelations from the New York Times, released an email stream on social media that showed he had been told by Goldstone that the meeting would produce very high-level information from Russia’s government that would damage Clinton and that he had reacted by saying: “If it’s what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer.”

Meanwhile, the Washington Post revealed further links between the Trumps and Agalarov and his family. Agalarov senior, a wealthy property developer in Azerbaijan, reportedly sponsored Trump's Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow in 2013. A year later, Donald Trump sent Emin a video recording congratulating him on his 35th birthday. Agalarov senior also backed plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow, plans that have since been put on hold. 

Agalarov is somewhat of a celebrity in Azerbaijan, where he has built a career in entertainment and runs numerous of his billionaire father's businesses. He was married to President Ilham Aliyev's daughter Leyla between 2008 and 2015, and they have two children together.