Investigation: Trump businesses received millions from foreign governments
By: Steve Benen
China Trump!
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In the not-too-distant past, the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution was relatively obscure to the public. Donald Trump changed all of that.
As we’ve discussed many times , the clause prohibits U.S. officials from receiving payments from foreign governments. Traditionally, this hasn’t been much of a problem for sitting American presidents. During the Trump era, however, it became one of the Republican’s under-appreciated controversies.
While serving as president, Trump owned a hotel that sat roughly a half-mile from the White House, which hosted international officials with some regularity. As we’ve discussed , the result was a dynamic in which foreign governments spent quite a bit of money at a Trump-owned property, to the benefit of the then-American president and his private-sector enterprise.
The Republican had some vague understanding that the Constitution prevented him from receiving payments from foreign governments — Trump referred to the legal provision as “ phony “ for reasons he never explained — but he did it anyway.
The former president has sold the hotel , but the scope of his alleged wrongdoing continues to come into sharper focus. The New York Times reported :
Donald J. Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his presidency, according to new documents released by House Democrats on Thursday that show how much he received from overseas transactions while he was in the White House, most of it from China.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee unveiled the results of an investigation in a lengthy, 156-page report called “ White House For Sale .” Relying on documents from Mazars USA, Trump’s former accounting firm, congressional researchers determined that the Republican’s businesses received “ at least “ $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments.
What’s more, the scope of the examination was relatively narrow: Oversight Committee Democrats focused only on four Trump-owned properties — 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 — and only covered two of the four years he was in the White House.
In other words, foreign governments might also have poured money into other businesses owned by the Republican — while he was in office — but those expenditures weren’t included in this investigation.
“[T]oday’s report makes clear that former President Trump put lining his pockets with cash from foreign governments seeking policy favors over the interests of the American people,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s ranking member, said in a statement. The Maryland Democrat added that the Republican “repeatedly and willfully violated the U.S. Constitution by failing to divest from his business empire and allowing his businesses to accept millions of dollars in payments from some of the most corrupt nations on earth.”
If you’re wondering how Trump got away with this, it’s worth noting that the emoluments controversy worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court — which rejected the matter just days after the Republican left office, saying Trump’s departure rendered the matter moot.
Stepping back, there’s also a broader, ongoing question to keep in mind, which likely influenced those who wrote the “White House For Sale” report: As GOP lawmakers search in desperation for evidence that President Joe Biden took foreign money while in office, congressional investigators have now documented the fact that Trump’s business empire — which he owned and benefited from during his presidency — took in millions of dollars from foreign governments while in office.
Or put another way, Trump did the very thing that Republicans have falsely accused Biden of doing.
This post updates our related earlier coverage .
Joe Biden and Democrats are off topic.
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If someone could fix the article image.....thanks in advance.
I wonder how much of that multibillion dollar arms deal to Saudi Arabia went into his pocket?
If I had to guess? probably half.
Looks like trump was for sale.....just like he always has been.
he's used real estate to launder money for decades...
I'm afraid the country is so far gone nothing is going to turn "his" people against Trump.
Former President Donald Trump is angry that his top rival from the 2016 Republican primary, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), hasn't yet endorsed him, the New York Times reported Thursday.
Trump has been "privately ranting" that Cruz isn't yet backing his 2024 bid for the White House, and has been "workshopping nicknames" for him with the intent of bullying the Texas senator into getting off the sidelines, according to the Times' sources.
"Ted — he shouldn’t even exist,” Trump recently said, according to the Times' sources. “I could’ve destroyed him. I kind of did destroy him in 2016, if you think about it. But then I let him live.”
Trump waged an infamously personal and cruel campaign against Cruz in 2016 that included insulting the appearance of his wife , Heidi Cruz, and insinuating that Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy .
Cruz nonetheless came around to endorsing Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 general elections.
The Times also reports that Trump has been gloating about getting the endorsement of Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) this week despite the role the former president played in torpedoing Emmer's bid for the speakership.
"They always bend the knee," Trump reportedly said of Emmer.
What kind of self-esteem does a person have when they endorse a candidate that called his wife ugly?
Only $7.8 million?
They reported on only the first 2 years.
In other who gives a fuck news:
Prove that any of the money received was illegal. Prove that no taxes were paid on it. Prove that any of the overseas clients were overcharged, didn't use the services, or paid for anything other than the services rendered.
Eight years and this is the best the Democrats and leftists can come up with? They need to learn what a legitimate business looks like.
Did you forget about the 91 felonies trump is charged with?
This issue isn't Trump's businesses, it's the blatant hypocrisy of the populist Republican caucus trying to impeach Biden. We now know Trump made money while in office and Comer has gotten money from his brother and has shell companies. All things Republicans are accusing the Bidens of doing.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the law... perhaps you can point to the where, in the laws, it says it's illegal when Democrats do it, but legitimate business when Republicans do it?
snicker...snort
I'm shocked I tell you, just shocked. /s
People in different countries stayed in Trump owned hotels? The poutrage! This couldn't be just another sad attempt at deflecting from another Joe problem, maybe involving millions from other countries that he can't show what they got in return could it? Oh, it is Steve Benen, one of Rachel Madcows minions, then that is exactly what it is.