I think most people already suspected this, but now a congressional report makes it official. Donald Trump accepted nearly $8 million from foreign countries during the first two years of his presidency (Republicans blocked the examination of the final two years of his presidency). He used the presidency to make himself richer -- which is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Here's how Dan Rather puts it:
According to a report released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, Donald Trump’s businesses allegedly received millions of dollars from 20 foreign governments, including “some of the world’s most unsavory regimes,” while the former president was in office. The report, “White House For Sale: How Princes, Prime Ministers, and Premiers Paid Off President Trump,” results from a years-long investigation.
The Emoluments Clause in the Constitution disallows federal officials, including the president, from accepting money, payment or gifts “of any kind whatever” from foreign governments unless permission is granted from Congress. Trump never sought such permission.
Congressional investigators found Trump and his family received “at least” $7.8 million, much of the money from China but also from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia and others. The payments were made to Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C.; Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas; Trump Tower, Fifth Avenue, New York; and Trump World Tower, New York.
“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.”
— Congressional Report, “White House For Sale”
Despite requests from Democrats and Republicans after his 2016 win, Trump refused to divest his financial holdings and place his businesses in blind trusts, as every president since the 1970s had done.
House Democrats think this may be the proverbial tip of the iceberg, because when they lost their majority in 2022, Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, was released from having to provide any documents related to the foreign gifts. Democrats were able to see only a small portion of receipts from Trump’s businesses. Republicans, meanwhile, have focused on similar allegations about President Biden and his son, Hunter. So far, no wrongdoing has been proven there.
According to Eric Trump, son of the former president, profits earned by the Trump hotels were given to the Treasury Department voluntarily. We don’t know if the money was given to the federal government, but this admission confirms that profits were in fact earned from foreign entities. The whole thing merits more investigation.
It is so easy to throw this kind of behavior on the scrapheap of outrageous — sometimes illegal — doings by the former president, to shake your head and shrug your shoulders. But there is a compelling reason to keep calling out all the illegal and immoral exploits of Trump. If no one does, he gets away with it.
Read the full report here.
