Trump Pocketed Millions of Dollars From Communist China, Saudi Arabia During His White House Years: Democratic Report

A new report from congressional Democrats says President Trump profited handsomely from foreign governments while he was serving as the nation’s chief executive. Nearly $8 million flowed into the president’s coffers from countries like Saudi Arabia and Communist China during his administration, the report says.The funds were directed to Mr. Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA LLC, after money was spent at some of the more than 500 Trump-owned entities, including his former hotel at the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue at Washington, his Las Vegas hotel, and Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, among others. “After promising ‘the greatest infomercial in political history,’ former President Donald Trump repeatedly and willfully violated the U.S. Constitution by failing to divest from his business empire and allowing his businesses to accept millions of dollars in payments from some of the most corrupt nations on earth,” the man behind the report, Congressman Jamie Raskin, said in a statement. “The limited records that the Committee obtained show that while Donald Trump was in office, he received more than $5.5 million from the Chinese government and Chinese state-owned enterprises, as well as millions more from 19 other foreign governments,” he added. “Each dollar former President Trump accepted violated the Constitution’s strict prohibition on payments from foreign governments, which the Founders enacted to prevent presidents from selling out U.S. foreign policy to foreign leaders.”One of the largest payments to Mr. Trump’s business from China came from one of the largest commercial banks in East Asia, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. According to the report, the ICBC signed a lease for space at Trump Tower in 2008 and paid him more than $5.3 million between 2017 and 2019 — far more than the original rental price listed on the 2008 lease. ICBC has been accused of helping facilitate funding for the North Korean regime. Other governments that spent money at Mr. Trump’s properties include the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Malaysia. A spokesman for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, who is investigating President Biden for his family’s alleged “influence-peddling scheme,” said that the difference between Mr. Trump’s profiteering and the Biden family’s is that the former president had a legitimate real estate empire. “It’s beyond parody that Democrats continue their obsession with former President Donald Trump,” Mr. Comer said in a statement. “Former President Trump has legitimate businesses, but the Bidens do not.” Mr. Comer previously told the Sun that he has seen enough evidence to impeach Mr. Biden because son Hunter and brother James “leveraged” the family name to take in money from foreign governments and individuals. Mr. Raskin said that it is Mr. Comer — not Democrats — who are obsessed with keeping the former president in the news so that he will have a greater chance at being elected to the presidency in November.“The moment the Republicans drop Donald Trump, who is a clear and present threat to American constitutional democracy, I will be pleased to never mention his name again in a political context and simply allow the courts and his family to deal with him,” Mr. Raskin said in a follow-up statement. “Is the Chairman too obsessed to let Trump go?”

Trump Pocketed Millions of Dollars From Communist China, Saudi Arabia During His White House Years: Democratic Report

More from the New York Sun

‘60 Minutes’ Correspondent Scott Pelley Fired One Day After Criticizing His Bosses: Will The Network Be Forced To Pay Out His Contract?

Trump Administration Cites Forced Labor For New Tariffs on Dozens of Countries

‘Jerome’ Poignantly Highlights Schemers and Dreamers in the American West

More from the New York Sun

‘60 Minutes’ Correspondent Scott Pelley Fired One Day After Criticizing His Bosses: Will The Network Be Forced To Pay Out His Contract?

Trump Administration Cites Forced Labor For New Tariffs on Dozens of Countries

‘Jerome’ Poignantly Highlights Schemers and Dreamers in the American West

Ukraine Moves Battle Lines With Its Mid-Range Drones

‘You’re On’: Senators Gillibrand and Cruz Bet on the NBA Finals

CMS To Make GLP-1s Eligible to Medicare Patients for $50 a Month

Democrats Get Their Dream Scenario in California with Becerra and Hilton Likely Headed to the Runoff

Social Mobility 101