Trump Raked in Millions From China During Presidency: Report

Nikki McCann Ramirez
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A new report released by House Oversight Democrats revealed $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments to former President Donald Trump’s businesses and properties during the years he was in office. The bulk of the payments, to the tune of $5.6 million, came from China.

“We know about only some of the payments that passed into former President Trump’s hands during just two years of his presidency, from just 20 of the more than 190 nations in the world, through just four of his more than 500 businesses,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, wrote in his introduction to the “White House for Sale” report released Thursday.

Under the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, elected office-holders — including presidents — are barred from accepting gifts, payments, and other emoluments from foreign governments and dignitaries without the consent of Congress, as they could be used to influence policy and governance.

As president, Trump refused to divest from his business empire, instead handing control of the conglomerate to his sons Eric and Donald Jr. The report released Thursday alleges that Trump violated the prohibitions against receiving emoluments when his businesses accepted payments from foreign governments to his properties in New York, Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas. The findings of the report read as if they were the evidence Republicans have been desperately seeking in their own quest to impeach President Joe Biden on unproven charges of corrupt foreign business dealings.

“The foreign nations making payments to President Trump spanned the globe and included several of the most corrupt and authoritarian governments on Earth,” the report reads. “They ranged from the People’s Republic of China to Saudi Arabia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Malaysia to Albania to Kosovo. These countries spent — often lavishly — on apartments and hotel stays at Donald Trump’s properties — personally enriching President Trump while he made foreign policy decisions connected to their policy agendas with far-reaching ramifications for the United States.”

Democrats emphasized their belief that the total Trump took in was likely much larger than $7.8 million. “Even this small slice of a picture of unknown proportions allows America to glimpse the rampant illegality and corruption of the Trump presidency. It is true that $7.8 million is almost certainly only a fraction of Trump’s harvest of unlawful foreign state money, but this figure in itself is a scandal and a decisive spur to action,” Raskin wrote.

Of the various nations that made payments to Trump’s properties, “China made the largest total payment to President Trump’s private business interests. According to the subset of documents obtained from Mazars and an additional document from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), these payments collectively included millions of dollars from China’s Embassy in the United States; the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), a Chinese state-owned enterprise; and Hainan Airlines Holding Company, a subsidiary of Chinese company HNA Group, owned by the Hainan provincial government.” The report alleges that the former president’s financial ties to China, as well as other countries, may have affected the Trump administration’s policies towards the nations funneling money into his properties.

In December, House Republicans formally opened an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, alleging after years of fruitless investigations that the current president — as well as his family — have enriched themselves through corrupt business dealings with countries like Ukraine and China. Republicans have struggled to justify the decision to plow forward with impeachment proceedings despite a lack of concrete evidence against President Biden. That irony is not lost on Oversight Democrats, who wrote that as Chairman of the committee Rep. James Comer intentionally halted the production of documents “relating to President Trump’s receipt of foreign payments—from China or any other country—and launched an investigation of President Joseph Biden’s son, which to date has produced no evidence of any constitutional or criminal wrongdoing by President Biden.”

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