Lawmakers say the Trump family in the White House failed to disclose $250,000 in gifts it received from foreign governments.
A gold golf club from Japan and swords from the royal family of Saudi Arabia were among the gifts lawmakers in the United States say the family of former President Donald Trump failed to disclose while in office.
In a statement released Friday, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee listed more than 100 items they claim Trump and his family failed to mention during his four years in the White House. The items were valued at over $250,000.
The list included 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia totaling more than $45,000 – including a dagger worth up to $24,000 – and 17 gifts from India, including expensive cufflinks, a vase and a model of the Taj Mahal from $4,600.
Under the U.S. Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, the president, vice president, and their families are required to report gifts presented by foreign officials worth more than several hundred dollars. The State Department has a diplomatic gifts unit to keep track of the gifts.
Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the oversight panel, accused Trump and his administration of “brutal disregard for the rule of law” and “systematic mishandling of large gifts from foreign governments.”
In a statement, Raskin pledged to investigate the whereabouts of the “many lavish personalized gifts” that have never been reported, adding that the panel was working to determine “whether they may have been used to influence the president’s conduct of the U.S. foreign policy”. .
Also on the list was a larger-than-life image of Trump depicting the president of El Salvador, which commission investigators say has been moved to Florida, where Trump owns a beachfront mansion and three golf clubs.
Also missing were thousands of dollars worth of golf clubs given to Trump in 2018 and 2019 by Shinzo Abe, the then Prime Minister of Japan. Those include a $3,755 gold golf driver.
In a joint statement, the Democrats said their report “raises important questions about why former President Trump failed to disclose these gifts, as required by federal law.”
The investigation echoes a recent investigation launched by Brazilian authorities into allegations that former President Jair Bolsonaro, while in office, sought to bring jewelry worth more than $3.2 million from Saudi Arabia into the country without labeling it an official official. to present a gift.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro — who is closely associated with the former US president, earning him the nickname “Tropical Trump” — was ordered to turn in a set of jewelry that had passed through Brazilian customs.
Trump, who is running for re-election in 2024, did not immediately respond to the Democrats’ report.