Democrats say Trump violated Constitution by accepting at least $7.8 million from China, Saudi Arabia and other countries for leases and hotel stays
China and Saudi Arabia topped a list of 20 countries whose governments or state-linked entities pumped millions of dollars into Donald Trump’s properties while he was president, according to a new report and previously undisclosed records that shed light on Trump’s potential business conflicts as he seeks a second term.
Public documents and internal financial records obtained by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee and seen by The Wall Street Journal showed that countries spent lavishly at Trump’s hotels in Washington and Las Vegas. They also shelled out for payments at his New York properties, spending a total of at least $7.8 million during his time in office.
The Chinese government and entities linked to it spent more than $5.5 million, or nine times that of Saudi Arabia, the next biggest spender, according to the report published Thursday by the panel’s Democratic minority. It argued that the foreign payments identified are “likely only a small fraction” of the true total because of incomplete disclosures.
The report, underpinned by documents provided to House investigators by the accounting firm Mazars USA, offers a fuller picture of how Trump’s businesses benefited during his presidency as foreign officials may have tried to curry favor with Trump. Democrats will likely raise such questions again if he wins another term in November.
The Democratic minority released its findings as their House GOP counterparts are pursuing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, focused on whether he benefited from the overseas business dealings of his son Hunter and others in his family. The Bidens have denied any wrongdoing, and Democrats have accused Republicans of hypocrisy given Trump’s extensive foreign business efforts.
Hundreds of pages of expenses seen by the Journal include at least $210,000 in real estate and lodging fees by Saudi Arabia in 2018, the same year Trump publicly doubted U.S. intelligence assessments that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. (The Democrats’ report estimated Saudi Arabia spent at least $615,000 at Trump properties over the course of his presidency.)
Newly disclosed receipts also show that Hainan Airlines Holding, which then had connections to China’s leadership, incurred $195,662 in charges at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas during a 14-month period beginning days before Trump was elected in 2016.
Malaysia paid for a $10,000-per-night suite in Trump’s Washington hotel in September 2017 for then-Prime Minister Najib Razak while he was under a U.S. investigation for his role in a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal that ultimately helped topple his government. Malaysia’s spending caused a 70% jump in average nightly room revenue at Trump’s Washington hotel compared with other nights that month, the report said.
And a few months earlier, a Saudi delegation paid $2,000 for coffee table flowers and towers of cookies at the same hotel.
