Donald J. Trump’s companies acquired at the least $7.8 million from 20 overseas governments throughout his presidency, in keeping with new paperwork launched by House Democrats on Thursday that present how a lot he acquired from abroad transactions whereas he was within the White House, most of it from China.
The transactions, detailed in a 156-page report known as “White House For Sale” that was produced by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, supply concrete proof that the previous president engaged within the type of conduct that House Republicans have labored, thus far unsuccessfully, to show that President Biden did as they work to construct an impeachment case in opposition to him.
Using paperwork produced by means of a courtroom combat, the report describes how overseas governments and their managed entities, together with a high U.S. adversary, interacted with Trump companies whereas he was president. They paid thousands and thousands to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.; 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 Constitution prohibits federal officeholders from accepting cash, funds or items “of any kind whatever” from overseas governments and monarchs until they get hold of “the consent of the Congress” to take action. The report notes that Mr. Trump by no means went to Congress to hunt consent.
House Democrats highlighted the transactions on Thursday as a counterweight to Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden, which has sought to tie him to worldwide enterprise offers by his son Hunter Biden earlier than his father turned president in a bid to show corruption or affect peddling. They have thus far failed to point out that President Biden was enriched in any method by any of these transactions.
“By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous commander in chief,” Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the highest Democrat on the Oversight Committee, wrote in a foreword to the report.
Among the international locations patronizing Mr. Trump’s properties, China made the biggest complete fee — $5.5 million — to his enterprise pursuits, the report discovered. Those funds included thousands and thousands of {dollars} from China’s Embassy within the United States, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Hainan Airlines Holding Company.
Saudi Arabia was the second-largest spender, shelling out greater than $615,000 on the Trump World Tower and Trump International Hotel.
Eric Trump, the previous president’s son, has lengthy insisted that overseas pursuits didn’t affect his father’s presidency and that any revenue the corporate earned on the lodge stays was returned to the federal authorities by means of a voluntary annual fee to the Treasury Department.
But Mr. Raskin famous on Thursday that donating income to the Treasury falls wanting the constitutional necessities positioned on a president.
On Thursday, Eric Trump mentioned in an e mail that the Chinese financial institution talked about within the report had signed a 20-year lease at Trump Tower in 2008, nearly a decade earlier than his father took workplace. And he argued it was clear that the previous president had not allowed his private enterprise incentives to drive his official actions.
“That narrative is insane,” Eric Trump mentioned of the Democrats’ report. He added that “there is no president in United States history who was tougher on China than Donald Trump,” citing the substantial tariffs the previous president imposed on the nation’s items and providers. He additionally mentioned the Trump Organization did “not have the ability or viability to stop someone from booking through third parties” on the lodge.
House Republicans additionally dismissed the revelations, arguing that there was nothing fallacious with Mr. Trump receiving income from overseas governments whereas he was president however that Mr. Biden’s household’s enterprise was corrupt.
“Former President Trump has legitimate businesses, but the Bidens do not,” Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and the chairman of the oversight panel, mentioned in an announcement on Thursday. He charged that the Bidens had made greater than thrice as a lot as the brand new data present Mr. Trump had from overseas governments “by cashing in on the Biden name,” including that, “No goods or services were provided other than access to Joe Biden and the Biden network.”
The Democrats’ report acknowledges its personal limitations. Democrats fought aggressively by means of years of litigation to achieve entry to solely a portion of Mr. Trump’s enterprise data. After they gained courtroom rulings, Mazars USA, the longtime accounting agency for Mr. Trump that reduce ties with him and his household enterprise, started in 2022 turning over paperwork associated to his monetary dealings.
The improvement got here after Mazars mentioned it might now not stand behind a decade of annual monetary statements it had ready for the Trump Organization.
But as soon as Republicans gained management of Congress, they dropped the hassle to drive Mazars to proceed with its manufacturing of paperwork about Mr. Trump’s enterprise dealings.
Mr. Comer made clear he had deserted any investigation into the previous president’s monetary dealings and was as an alternative specializing in whether or not Mr. Biden and members of his household have been concerned in an influence-peddling scheme.
Still, Democrats say they acquired key materials earlier than the investigation was shut down.
“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-owned businesses while President Trump was in the White House,” the report states. “These payments were made while these governments were promoting specific foreign policy goals with the Trump administration and even, at times, with President Trump himself, and as they were requesting specific actions from the United States to advance their own national policy objectives.”
The report is the results of a multiyear investigation into Mr. Trump’s receipt of funds from foreign-controlled entities whereas in workplace. The investigation started in 2016 underneath the management of Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, who died in 2019.
It famous that Mr. Trump generally bragged in regards to the wealth that overseas governments had offered him, together with at a marketing campaign rally in 2015, when he recommended that his private monetary incentives would possibly affect his dealings with one other authorities.
“Saudi Arabia, I get along great with all of them,” the report quotes him saying. “They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much!”
The report urges Congress to think about adopting new disclosure guidelines to assist the legislative department get hold of data for correct oversight. It additionally recommends a extra formal process for presidents and different officers to hunt Congress’s permission once they obtain and wish to retain wealth from different international locations.
