Lawmakers say the Trump family failed to disclose $250,000 in gifts received from foreign governments while in the White House.
A golden golf club from Japan and swords from the royal family of Saudi Arabia were among the gifts that US lawmakers say the family of the former president donald trump he did not disclose during his time in office.
In a statement released Friday, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee listed more than 100 items they say Trump and his family failed to report during their four years in the White House. The items were valued at more than $250,000.
On the list were 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia with a total value of more than $45,000, including a dagger valued at up to $24,000, and 17 gifts from India including expensive cufflinks, a vase and a $4,600 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 Department of State has a Diplomatic Gifts Unit to keep records of those gifts.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the oversight panel, accused Trump and his administration of “blatant disregard for the rule of law” and “systematic mishandling of large gifts from foreign governments.”
In a statement, Raskin vowed to investigate the whereabouts of the “many lavish personalized gifts” that were never reported, adding that the panel was working to determine “whether they may have been used to influence the president in his conduct of United States foreign policy.” Joined”. .
The list also included a larger-than-life painting of Trump of the president of El Salvador that committee investigators believe may have been moved to Florida, where Trump owns a waterfront mansion and three golf clubs.
Also unknown are the thousands of dollars worth of golf clubs given to Trump in 2018 and 2019 by Shinzo Abe, the then prime minister of Japan. Those included a $3,755 gold golf driver.
In a joint statement, the Democrats said their report “raises important questions about why former President Trump failed to disclose these gifts to the public, as required by federal law.”
The investigation echoes a recent investigation launched by Brazilian authorities into allegations that former President Jair Bolsonaro tried to bring into the country gift jewelry from Saudi Arabia, valued at more than $3.2 million, during his tenure without declaring it a official gift.
On Wednesday Bolsonaro, who is closely aligned with the former US president, earning him the nickname “Tropical Trump”, was ordered to turn around a set of jewels that had managed to pass customs in Brazil.
Trump, who is running for re-election in 2024, did not immediately respond to the Democrats’ report.
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