As president, Trump received millions from foreign governments, the report shows
Donald J. Trump’s companies received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his presidency, according to new documents released Thursday by House Democrats showing how much he received from foreign transactions while in the White House , most of it from China .
The transactions, detailed in a 156-page report called “White House For Sale” that was produced by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, provide concrete evidence that the former president has engaged in the kind of behavior that Republicans in the House of Representatives have so far unsuccessfully attempted to prove that President Biden has done which they did to build an impeachment case against him.
Using documents The report, which came through a lawsuit, details how foreign governments and their controlled entities, including a top U.S. enemy, dealt with Trump companies while he was president. They paid millions to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC; Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas; Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York; and Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza in New York.
House Democrats highlighted the transactions Thursday as a counterbalance to Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden, which has sought to tie him to international business deals by his son Hunter Biden before his father became president in an effort to investigate corruption or to prove influence. They have so far failed to demonstrate that President Biden has been enriched in any way by any of these transactions.
“By placing his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers above the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commandments of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and upheld by every previous Commander in Chief,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin. of Maryland, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, wrote in a foreword to the report.
Of the countries that patronized Trump’s properties, China made the largest total payment — $5.5 million — to his business interests, the report found. These payments include millions of dollars from the Chinese Embassy in the United States, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Hainan Airlines Holding Company.
Saudi Arabia was the second largest spender, spending more than $615,000 on the Trump World Tower and the Trump International Hotel.
Eric Trump, the former president’s son, has long maintained that foreign interests had no influence on his father’s presidency and that any profits the company earned from the hotel stays were returned to the federal government through a voluntary annual payment to the department of Finance.
The Constitution prohibits a president from accepting money, payments, or gifts “of every kind whatsoever” from foreign governments and monarchs unless he obtains “the consent of Congress.” The report notes that Mr. Trump never went to Congress to ask for authorization.
The report also acknowledges its own limitations. Democrats aggressively fought through years of lawsuits to gain access to just some of Mr. Trump’s business records. After winning court rulings, Mazars USA, Mr. Trump’s old accounting firm that cut ties with him and his family business, began turning over documents related to his financial dealings in 2022.
The development came after Mazars said it could no longer stand behind a decade of annual financial statements it had prepared for the Trump Organization.
But once Republicans won control of Congress, they dropped the effort to force Mazars to continue producing documents on Trump’s business dealings.
Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and chairman of the Oversight Committee, made clear that he had abandoned any investigation into the former president’s financial dealings and was instead focusing on whether Mr. Biden and members of his family were involved in an influential situation. paddling schedule.
Still, Democrats say they received important material before the investigation was dropped.
“Critically, even this subset of documents reveals a stunning web of millions of dollars in payments made by foreign governments and their agents directly to Trump companies while President Trump was in the White House,” the report said. “These payments were made while these administrations were promoting specific foreign policy objectives to the Trump administration and sometimes even to President Trump himself, and while requesting specific actions from the United States to advance their own national policy objectives.”
The report is the result of a multi-year investigation into the receipt of payments by foreign-controlled entities during his time in office. The investigation began in 2016 under the leadership of Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, who died in 2019.
Trump was noted at times to have bragged about the wealth foreign governments had provided him, including at a 2015 campaign rally when he suggested his personal financial incentives could influence his dealings with another government.
“Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them,” the report quotes him as saying. “They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Shouldn’t I like them? I like them a lot!”
The report urges Congress to consider adopting new disclosure rules to help the legislature obtain information for proper oversight. It also recommends a more formal process for presidents and other officials to seek congressional approval when receiving and seeking to retain wealth from other countries.