WASHINGTON (AP) — donald trumpThe White House has could not report more than 100 gifts from foreign nations worth more than a quarter of a million dollars, and federal officials have been unable to find a life-size painting of Trump given by the president of El Salvador, as well as golf clubs from the prime minister of Japan, according to a report Friday by House democrats.
Among the unreported items are 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, says the report. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
Gifts of more than several hundred dollars that foreign officials give to the President, Vice President, and their families must be reported to the Department of State in accordance with the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act.
The House Democrats’ report, citing State Department records, says the amount of gifts reported by Trump and his family is less than the amount disclosed by previous presidents.
In all, the report says, while the White House reported some gifts to the state between 2017 and 2019, it did not report more than 100 foreign gifts with a total value of more than $250,000.
The report says that federal officials have been unable to locate a life-size painting of Trump that, according to internal White House correspondence, was commissioned by the president of El Salvador and delivered to the US Embassy in El Salvador as a gift to Trump just before the 2020 US election.
According to the report, the US ambassador to El Salvador alerted US officials to the gift and requested help shipping it.
The report says there are “no records of the disposition of the painting” by the National Archives and Records Administration or the General Services Administration, but some records suggest it may have been moved to Florida in July 2021 as the property of Trump.
Also unknown are the thousands of dollars worth of golf clubs given to Trump in 2017 and 2018 by Shinzo Abe, then Japan’s prime minister.
The clubs, which according to the report “include a putter valued at $460 and a driver valued at $3,040,” were presented by Abe to Trump during visits to Trump International Golf Club and Kasumigaseki Country Club. The report says that NARA has no records of the clubs and GSA has no records of the purchased clubs.
“Today’s preliminary findings again suggest the Trump administration’s blatant disregard for the rule of law and its systematic mishandling of large gifts from foreign governments, including many lavish personalized gifts that far exceed the legal limit in value but were never reported. , some of which are still missing. today,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a statement.
It also said the committee would “remain committed to following the facts to determine the extent to which former President Trump violated the law or violated the Constitution when he failed to report gifts and took possession of valuable items without paying fair market value for them.” . .”
A Trump spokesman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.