Donald Trump's White House has failed to 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 from House Democrats.
Among the unreported items are 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia worth more than $45,000 in all, including a dagger valued at up to $24,000, and 17 presents from India that include expensive cufflinks, a vase and a $4,600 model of the Taj Mahal, says the report from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
Gifts above several hundred dollars that foreign officials give to the president, vice president and their families are required under the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act to be reported to the State Department. The report from House Democrats, citing State Department records, says the number of gifts reported by Trump and his family are lower than the number disclosed by previous presidents.
All told, the report says, though the White House did report some gifts to State between 2017 and 2019, it failed to report more than 100 foreign gifts with a total value of over $250,000.
The report says federal officials have not been able 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 U.S. Embassy in El Salvador as a gift to Trump just before the 2020 U.S. election. According to the report, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador alerted U.S. officials to the gift and requested help in shipping it.
The report says that "there are no records of the painting's disposition" by the National Archives and Records Administration or the General Services Administration but that some records suggest it may have been moved to Florida in July 2021 as property of Trump's.
Also unaccounted for are thousands of dollars in golf clubs given to Trump in 2018 and 2019 by Shinzo Abe, then the prime minister of Japan.
"Today’s preliminary findings suggest again the Trump Administration’s brazen disregard for the rule of law and its systematic mishandling of large gifts from foreign governments, including many lavish personalized gifts that vastly exceed the statutory limit in value but were never reported — some that are still missing today," Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a statement.
He also said that the committee would “remain committed to following the facts to determine the extent to which former President Trump broke the law or violated the Constitution when he failed to report gifts and took possession of valuable items without paying the fair market price for them.”
A Trump spokesman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
46 Comments
Superlib
He cares more about his bank account than the laws.
stormcrow
Trump is a kleptomaniac. It’s a part of his DNA.
wallace
Trump is a thief.
wallace
A thief is someone stealing that which does not belong to them. Trump prefers not to pay for what he wants. His lawyers quit for nonpayments. The gifts are many hundreds of thousands of dollars.
bass4funk
Read the above article first before trying to tell us the definition of what we already know.
Not only him. There were other politicians that did this. According to your definition.
Ok.
wallace
I can post whatever comment I care to. Trump is a cheap skate. If he wanted to keep the gifts he should have paid for them.
The article is only about Trump.
bass4funk
Same.
Not just him
Ok, leave other cheapskates out of it, gloss over them, gotcha. Lol
wallace
Clintons returned or paid for most of the items that they took from the White House, although they were able to keep two items that they had returned.
bass4funk
Yes, but still thieves according to your very definition.
wallace
The Clintons paid for what they kept. Not thieves. Trump could pay for his but he will try not too. It's in his DNA.
wallace
No, they are not. No need t keep repeating yourself.
The Clintons declared all the gifts they received and paid for those which they kept. How does that make them thieves?
Trump didn't declare all his gifts and after two years out of office has not paid for those he kept.
lincolnman
No doubt a little sleuthing at the Trumpstore.com would find all of these items - at quadruple the price...
Of course, we already know where one $2 billion gift/bribe/payoff is....
https://www.businessinsider.com/kushners-2-billion-investment-saudi-backed-fund-concealed-sec-rules-2023-2
u_s__reamer
"Emoluments", by any other name, and another orange "elephant in the room" that continues to make a mockery of law-enforcement when the political class is involved.
Simon Foston
bass4funkToday 08:40 am JST
That makes it all fine, right?
I might have guessed it would have been him. I daresay the money for the clubs came from some Yamaguchi koenkai slush fund that Abe didn't know anything about because one of his secretaries handled it all.
Bob Fosse
Breaking records. Impeached twice and about to be the first indicted ex-president in U.S. history.
There is no diminishing the significance of this.
lincolnman
Hanging in his Mar-A-Lago bathroom...
Gifted to one of his illegal immigrant groundskeepers at Bedminster...
For use on his next attack on Ron DeSanctimonious...
Uses as golf ball markers...
Used for classified storage...
Re-gifted to the Pakistan President...
bass4funk
The Dems have
Acquitted twice and will be indicted, go for it. Once again, the Dems have unknowingly and stupidly given the GOP fodder going forward when they turn the tables on them. Lol
The Dems wreck the nation, 75% of Americans think we’re on the wrong track and their only priority is Trump. Yeah, they tightened their own noose politically around their necks. Lol
bass4funk
Uh, did I say that?
lincolnman
Is that ever a great explanation of the 2020 election attempted theft using fake, fraudulent electors by Trump and his cronies... Even though democracy prevailed, his attempt at "taking something that wasn't his" makes him a thief by your own definition.
Well stated...
Bob Fosse
75% lol.
Only the feeble minded think 45 has a snowball in hell’s chance of being elected again. The kind of people who believe the fantasy Fox was shilling them.
Bob Fosse
Ok. Which Dem has been impeached twice?
Take your time.
Blacklabel
Not even reading the article but I’m sure it says something about that bottle of whiskey liberals are obsessed over for half a decade now.
am i right?
Blacklabel
“Supreme Court dismisses emoluments cases against Trump”
well darn. that’s just too bad, isn’t it?
Simon Foston
bass4funkToday 11:05 am JST
Does that mean you think it's not okay for Trump not to report these gifts?
Hakman
Republicans don't impeach Democrat presidents for utterly groundless reasons out of sheer seething hatred for them.
So, "impeached twice" means absolutely nothing here.
They were both essentially childish Democrat temper tantrums. Those don't count.
Bob Fosse
There is nothing about a bottle of whiskey.
So, no. You are not right.
You neither.
Besides, it doesn’t matter. It’s done, he was impeached twice. History will remember that and he won’t be president again. It’s a win anyway you slice it.
Blacklabel
Let’s inform CNN! About to be another raid over some golf clubs and a painting of Trump.
lincolnman
Hmmm.....
On Sunday, South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace said something that should have gotten way more attention. “I believe there’s pressure on the Republicans to put that forward and have that vote,” Mace told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press,” suggesting that there would be an effort to impeach President Joe Biden if the GOP takes control of the House this fall. “I think that’s what some folks are considering.”
Pure denial of reality...it's an official government-recorded fact...
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/14/956621191/these-are-the-10-republicans-who-voted-to-impeach-trump
ClippetyClop
"Donald Trump in Theft Shocker" is a news headline that will never surprise anyone. The man oozes criminality. He'd rob the eye out of your head.
wallace
Trump steals from his donors. $100 million of donated campaign money was used for his personal needs.
bass4funk
Which have been Acquitted twice?
I’m waiting…
wallace
Only acquitted twice because he was protected by his own party and not based on truth.
bass4funk
Only the feeble minded left thought he’s going to prison.
Ahhh, so believing the shilling from the left, the same people that preach the border is safe and secure.
ROFL
bass4funk
Starting to look like more and more the Biden’s stole a lot more, not to mention from the American voter.
Blacklabel
Liberals go crazy over cuff links but don’t care at all about 3 million dollars sent to 3 Biden’s and someone called “unknown Biden”. (Joe, is that you?)
biden doesn’t bother with silly “gifts”. He’s a cash man. he gets a cut of his family’s ill gotten CCP and Ukraine cash for influence schemes. That’s why he and his adult son have a shared back account.
wallace
There is evidence that Trump misused campaign money there is no evidence of Biden stealing money from anyone. More of your misinformation to try and protect your master.
Hakman
Biden hasn't been impeached, at least not yet.
So when he is, let us know.
Talking about impeachment, and actually doing it, are two different things.
And if Biden is impeached, which I seriously doubt, it'll surely be over something much more substantive than
(a) a phone call to a foreign leader, something a U.S. president is perfectly entitled to do, or
(b) a protest falsely cast, using cherry-picked video footage while thousands of hours of other footage is conveniently left out, as an "insurrection" whose participants were specifically told by Trump to comport themselves peacefully and legally.
wallace
You would find an accuse to pardon Trump regardless of the levels of his crimes.
bass4funk
Ditto
Blacklabel
Bill Clinton still my favorite President ever though, that’s a fact.
wallace
Where is your evidence Biden used campaign money for personal use? Stole money from anyone. Kept gifts.
Trump lies about almost everything. During his term, he claimed he donated his salary but his tax returns revealed he didn't.
The man is a scam artist.
Raw Beer
They just can't stop going after Trump. The Dems really are very worried...
Blacklabel
2 second google search.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/02/02/fact-check-partly-false-claim-trump-tax-returns-salary-donation/11132712002/
verdict: false
“Multiple federal agencies told USA TODAY they received donations from part of Trump's salary. “
you “get trump” obsessives make it so easy by being uninformed.
lincolnman
My goodness, it seems the question we need to ask is, what did Trump not steal from the WH when he left office...
It seems he and his criminal cabal groomed up whatever they could take; highly classified documents, foreign gifts...wonder if he took the WH toilet seat covers....
Just like with the classified, I'm sure the gifts will be or already have been distributed to some of his BFFs and business partners; Putin, Orban, Xi, Lukashenko, KJU...
He probably gave the cufflinks to Steve Bannon...to try to class him up a little...which we all know is a lost cause...
bass4funk
There are other more important things he’s being investigated on.
Then you must hate this and the administration before Trump with a passion.
And then there’s this…
https://nypost.com/2021/09/23/biden-could-owe-as-much-as-500k-in-irs-taxes-report/
He’s a businessman, what’s Joe’s excuse??
wallace
bass4funk
Zilch!
Trump is a serial liar.
So businessmen are corrupt? That makes it alright?