Trump and his family failed to report $300,000 in gifts, including a giant self-portrait

A giant portrait of former President Donald Trump that the president of El Salvador offered to the White House is among gifts totaling $300,000 that have gone missing or gone unreported, according to Oversight Committee Democrats.

The portrait was presented as a gift from Salvadoran President Nayib. He sent it to the Trump-appointed ambassador to the country, Ron Johnson, a veteran CIA officer.

He sent the image to an aide to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, writing that it was “packed up and ready to ship to President Trump.”

“I just need to know where to send it,” Johnson added.

Trump aide Molly Michael asked “what is the best destination to ship to?”

Kushner himself wrote, simply: ‘Can we take care of this? Very good’.

An image contained in an addendum shows the Salvadoran president giving a thumbs up next to a portrait of Trump that begins at his knees. The President’s head is slightly higher than the President’s, making the portrait the size of a grown man.

Government regulations require officials to report gifts received at official functions to the Department of State, which retains them and records their value.

The Trump White House “failed to report more than 100 foreign gifts given to the President and the First Family that were above the reporting threshold, including some gifts valued at thousands of dollars,” according to the staff report, produced during a year by the committee where Rep. Jamie Raskin is now the top Democrat.

The committee discovered 16 unreported gifts to the Trump family with a total value of more than $45,000, including three gifts to President Trump and one gift to the President and First Lady. The undeclared gifts included a Saudi dagger valued at up to $24,000 and two sets of swords with a total value of $8,800. General Services Administration (GSA) records showed that Mr. Kushner purchased and retained five Saudi gifts, including the dagger, according to the report.

According to the Democratic report, ‘There are no records of the disposal of the painting. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had no records of this painting and the GSA also had no records of the purchase of this gift.

But transition documents ‘indicating that the Correspondence Manager for the Office of Donald J. Trump certified “full compliance with the final disposition of gifts” in April 2021, records obtained by the Committee suggest that the portrait may have having been moved to Florida as ‘property of the former president’ in July 2021,’ the report suggests.

The document also references “reports” of a $3,755 golfer presented to Trump by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who died last year.

Federal Register listings showed zero reported foreign gifts to President Trump from Prime Minister Abe in 2017, 2018 or 2019, but internal White House records reveal that Prime Minister Abe gave additional golf clubs to President Trump. during visits to Trump International Golf Club and Kasumigaseki Country Club in 2017 and 2018,’ the staff reported, including a $460 putter and #3040 driver.

The Archive ‘has no records of these golf clubs and does not have the golf clubs in its custody. GSA also has no records of the purchase of golf clubs. The Committee is still trying to determine the final disposition of these gifts,” the report states.

But there may be mistakes. The report says the arrangement of a gift to Kushner from Egypt remains “unknown.”

A footnote references “a box decorated with silver patterns with an estimated value of $450 received from Kamal Abbas, General Coordinator of the Center for Trade Unions and Worker Services in 2018.”

But a former official pointed to a government document indicating the box resides in the Presidential Materials Division, with the name of the vault, 45, and a box number.

He describes it as ‘personal equipment, a rectangular box with a hinged lid and a certificate stating it is ‘pure silver’. However, the markings in Arabic indicate that it is 90% silver.

“Failures to disclose gifts from foreign governments were much more extensive than previously known and extended throughout the Trump Administration,” according to the report.

The total included gifts totaling $48,000 from Saudi Arabia. The gifts came from a number of powerful leaders and governments.

“Unreported foreign gifts include gifts from President Xi Jinping of China, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and other foreign government officials,” the report stated.

It came over a week when Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer released banking information about a Hunter Biden associate, including a wire transfer showing Beau Biden’s widow, Hallie Biden, received $35,000 in transfers at the time. in which a Hunter associate received $3 million from a Chinese firm.

Today’s preliminary findings again suggest the Trump Administration’s blatant disregard for the rule of law and its systematic mishandling of large gifts from foreign governments, including many lavish personalized gifts that far exceed the legal limit in value, but never were informed, some who are still missing today,’ Raskin said.

Unreported gifts from Trump totaled $150,000, and unreported gifts from the First Family and Trump totaled more than $250,000, according to the report.