A yearlong investigation by House Democrats has concluded that Donald Trump raked in $7.8 million as president from countries including China and Saudi Arabia, despite anger over the Constitution's “emoluments” clause during his time in office .
The money came through Trump Organization real estate holdings even as Trump withdrew from managing his financial empire, which is now the subject of a civil fraud lawsuit in New York.
The companies that did business with Trump's company even included a subsidiary of the defunct Chinese company CEFC, a conglomerate that also did deals with Hunter Biden, who was at the center of the Republican impeachment inquiry of President Biden.
Properties where Democratic staff and members tracked foreign funds included Trump's former hotel in Washington, D.C., which was the subject of intense investigation and lawsuits during Trump's term in office. During the Trump administration, the hotel was bustling.
According to a report from House Democrats, foreign governments spent $7.8 million on Trump companies during his four-year term
The Trump Organization sold the property's lease in 2022 for an estimated profit of $100 million. It is now a Waldorf Astoria hotel.
Of the total of $7.8 million, $5.6 million came from China, according to the report.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar were also among the countries spending millions at 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.
The transactions were detailed in a 156-page report called “White House For Sale” by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
Other foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, also conducted business through four Trump entities, according to the report. The report says the discovered foreign payments are “likely only a fraction of the total amount of foreign payments he received during his presidency.”
China and Saudi Arabia top the list
Much of the cost came from Trump's former hotel in DC
The report examined foreign spending at Trump's former hotel in DC
Democrats also investigated the Trump Tower property where Trump has a penthouse apartment
Researchers looked at the expenditure of the Saudi government, but also that of China
After promising 'the greatest infomercial in political history,' former President Donald Trump repeatedly and willfully violated the U.S. Constitution by failing to divest his business empire and allow his companies to make millions of dollars in payments to accept from some of the most corrupt countries in the world. earth,” the report said.
“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 House Oversight wrote Democrats.
“By pocketing payments from foreign states, President Trump repeatedly placed his personal financial interests and the interests of foreign wealth and power ahead of the public interest, resulting in precisely the divided loyalties between foreign powers and the American people that Framers tried to avoid' They wrote.
Expenses highlighted in the report include:
- A Chinese Embassy delegation that paid $19,391 to the Trump hotel in DC in 2017;
- Saudi Arabia and UAE spend money on Trump hotel in DC and Trump World Tower in New York'
- Saudi Arabia paid $212,000 through ownership of the 45th floor of the Trump World Tower and a hotel stay.
Researchers from the committee based their findings on financial information from accounting firm Mazars, which no longer does business with the company. The returns were the subject of lawsuits that spanned Trump's entire term and were ultimately won by Congress.
The report calls the expenditure a violation of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause.
It reads: 'No title of nobility shall be conferred by the United States: and no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under him, shall, without the Consent of Congress, accept any Gift, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind, of any king, prince, or foreign state.”
As president, Trump retained ownership of his company but transferred control to his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as well as former executive Allen Weisselberg.
The Trump Organization announced in 2017 that it would donate 'profits' from patronage of foreign governments. But the commission said the policy was “clearly inconsistent with the Constitution” and that both profiting and receiving revenue were prohibited.