Lawmakers say the Trump family failed to disclose $250,000 in gifts received from foreign governments at the White House.
A gold golf club from Japan and swords from Saudi Arabia’s royal family were among the gifts US lawmakers declared to the former’s family President Donald Trump failed to disclose while in office.
In a statement on Friday, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee listed more than 100 items they allege Trump and his family failed to report during his four years in the White House. The items were valued at over $250,000.
On the list were 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia worth over $45,000 – including a dagger worth up to $24,000 – and 17 gifts from India including expensive cufflinks, a $4,600 vase and model of the Taj Mahal.
Under the US Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, the President, Vice President and their families are required to report gifts from foreign officials worth more than several hundred dollars. The State Department has a Diplomatic Gifts Unit to maintain records of these gifts.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, accused Trump and his administration of “brazen disregard for the rule of law” and “systematic mismanagement of large donations from foreign governments.”
In a statement, Raskin promised to investigate the whereabouts of the “numerous lavish personalized gifts” that have never been reported, adding that the panel was working to determine “whether they may have been used to influence the president’s conduct. of American foreign policy”. .
The list also included a larger-than-life Trump painting of the president of El Salvador that committee investigators believe may have been moved to Florida, where Trump owns a seaside mansion and three golf clubs.
Thousands of dollars in golf clubs given to Trump in 2018 and 2019 by Shinzo Abe, then Prime Minister of Japan, were also missing. These included a $3,755 Gold Golf Driver.
In a joint statement, Democrats said their report “raises important questions about why former President Trump did not disclose these gifts to the public, as required by federal law.”
The probe echoes a recent investigation launched by Brazilian authorities into allegations that former President Jair Bolsonaro sought to bring in jewelry donated by Saudi Arabia – worth more than $3.2 million. dollars – in the country during his tenure without declaring them as an official gift.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro – who has close ties to the former US president, earning him the nickname “Tropical Trump” – was ordered to return a set of jewelry that had passed Brazilian customs controls.
Trump, who is running for re-election in 2024, did not immediately respond to the Democrats’ report.
