How Trump fused his business empire to the presidency

He has spent one out of every three days as president visiting one of his luxury resorts, hotels or golf courses. He has leveraged his powerful international platform to promote his developments dozens of times. And he has directed millions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers to his businesses around the globe.

In three years in the White House, Donald Trump has accomplished something no president before him has done: fusing his private business interests with America’s highest public office.

Trump’s early decision to maintain his grip on his sprawling real estate empire — despite his pledge to put his business aside while in the White House — has created a vast web of potential conflicts of interest, accusations about his policies being driven by his business interests and even possible violations of the law, according to documents and interviews.

Even as Trump kicks off his fourth year as president this week facing the stain of an impeachment trial, he has managed to skirt accountability for widespread possible conflicts of interest that critics say represent a blatant abuse of power and create dangerous risks to the integrity of the presidency.

The intersections between Trump Inc. and President Trump are everywhere: A Chinese state-owned company was awarded a multimillion dollar contract to help develop a Trump golf course in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, amid a U.S.-China trade war. T-Mobile executives stayed at Trump's Washington hotel while seeking a green light from the federal government for a merger. The IRS commissioner, who refused to release Trump’s tax returns to Congress, collects rent from a pair of Trump condos in Hawaii.

And in recent weeks, even Trump’s staunchest allies bluntly acknowledged that the president had left his own properties vulnerable to attacks by Iran after his order to kill the country’s top general.

“The level of this is shocking and deeply disturbing,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), a member of House leadership who serves on the Judiciary Committee. “This president has a habit of doing things out in the open, which are completely improper or even illegal and somehow ... the average person thinks, ‘Well, if he’s doing it out in the open it must be OK; I must not completely understand the rules.’ But it’s not.”

The White House and the Trump Organization didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Even after Congress launched an investigation into his businesses, the Trump administration authorized foreign governments to rent condos in Trump World Tower in New York, according to previously unreported documents obtained through a public records lawsuit by American Oversight, a watchdog group engaging with Congress on oversight of the administration.

Trump, already facing an impeachment trial while campaigning for a second term in office, is saddled with an unprecedented onslaught of investigations and lawsuits, many alleging he is violating the law by accepting money from U.S. taxpayers and foreign governments, both of which are forbidden by the emoluments clause of the Constitution.

The House launched an investigation last year, demanding the administration and Trump’s company release details about Vice President Mike Pence’s 2019 stay at a Trump resort in Ireland that came at the president’s suggestion. While they refused, new records obtained by POLITICO show the Irish police spent at least $4,000 at Trump Doonbeg while covering Pence’s visit — on top of $145,000 for other visits.

Lawmakers eventually cut the allegations out of their articles of impeachment, choosing to narrowly focus on Trump pushing Ukraine to open an inquiry into Democratic political rival Joe Biden. But lawmakers say they will continue to investigate to try to stop Trump from profiting from the presidency, force him to repay taxpayer money and prevent further conflicts.

“President Trump is openly enriching himself by encouraging government entities to spend money at his businesses, and foreign entities appear to frequent his business to curry favor with this administration,” said House Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y). “President Trump must be held accountable for his blatant disregard for the Constitution.”

Trump ignored calls to fully separate from his eponymous company, which comprises more than 500 businesses and includes properties in nearly two dozen countries, after he was sworn in to office.

Sheri Dillon, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, said in January 2017 that Trump “wants there to be no doubt in the minds of the American public that he is completely isolating himself from his business interests.”

That never happened. Trump still owns his business, though he asked his adult sons to run it. His holdings were placed in a trust designed to hold assets for his benefit from which he can draw money at any time without the public’s knowledge.

Trump has responded to repeated criticism by denying he is using the presidency to boost spending at his resorts, insisting people frequent them because “they’re the best” and calling the emoluments clause “phony.”

“It’s not a big deal — you people are making it a big deal,” he told reporters in December 2016. Trump joined others in his administration who argued that voters don’t care. “They all knew I had big business all over the place.”

In 2015, Trump famously rode down the escalator of Trump Tower in New York and launched his candidacy. It was a sign of what was to come.

Trump has visited his properties more than 350 times since he was sworn in to office 1,095 days ago, according to a compilation of information released by the White House.

He regularly visits his golf course in Sterling, Va., just outside Washington, and also travels to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., in the winter and to Bedminster, N.J., in the summer. On Friday, Trump left for Mar-a-Lago, where he held a closed Republican fundraiser, and returned to Washington on Sunday night.

Trump is losing money on many of his businesses, but revenue increased at some of the resorts he visited in 2018, according to his most recent personal financial disclosure forms. That comes even as Trump’s overall income dipped slightly, to $434 million in 2018 from $450 million in 2017.

Trump has promoted his properties dozens of times while in office, mentioning them in official remarks, everywhere from the United Nations to the Oval Office, and in tweets to his more than 60 million followers, with the frequency increasing each year he’s been president.

In March, he tweeted about Trump International Scotland, melding his businesses and his presidency in the message. “Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!”

Trump announced last year that he planned to hold the 2020 G-7 world leaders' summit at his financially struggling Trump National Doral Miami resort. But he reversed course after days of intense scrutiny from Democrats and Republicans, who complained he would be lining his pockets with both U.S. and foreign government money.

Trump and his adult children have been criticized for frequenting Trump resorts around the globe on vacation and on business trips, forcing the Secret Service and other federal agencies accompanying them to spend taxpayer money at Trump properties.

The Secret Service spent more than $250,000 at Trump properties during a five-month period in 2017, according to documents, providing a hint of what it may have spent over the three years of his presidency. There’s no way to determine how much in total the administration is spending because no single entity tracks that money.

But Democrats say Trump’s decision to accept foreign government money is where they may have the most leverage.

More than 100 officials and groups from 57 foreign countries have made visits to a Trump property, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group. Trump even invited leaders of seven countries to meet with him at Mar-a-Lago.

And state-owned companies in China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are building Trump resorts while other countries are constructing roads and donating public land for new developments — all potential violations of the Constitution.

More than 200 Democrats filed a lawsuit in 2017 alleging Trump is violating the emoluments clause through foreign payments received at his properties. The House even launched an investigation into allegations that groups — including at least one foreign government — tried to curry favor with Trump by booking rooms at his hotels but never staying in them.

Meanwhile, Republicans are flocking to his resorts, perhaps to ingratiate themselves to the president or just run into him.

Nearly 200 campaigns and political groups — virtually all conservative — have spent more than $8 million at Trump’s resorts and other businesses since his election in 2016, according to a report from the left-leaning consumer rights group Public Citizen released late last year. In addition, at least 285 top administration officials, more than 90 members of Congress and 47 state officials — some using taxpayer money — have made hundreds of visits, according to CREW.

In the nation’s capital, Trump’s hotel has become a place to see and be seen for candidates, Trump staffers and lawmakers. Trump leases the building from the federal government despite language in the contract that says no “elected official of the Government of the United States ... shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom.”

Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), chairwoman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee with jurisdiction over the hotel, is demanding documents from the Trump administration about the hotel’s looming potential sale to try to stop a questionable transaction, such as one that involves a foreign buyer.

“I think this is one of those problems of his own making,” she said. “He said he was going to divest, and then he didn’t divest, and then he put it in his children’s name and he’s kept on doing business.”