CREW reports that based on leaked copies of Trump’s tax returns he appears to have made $160 Million from foreign sources while he was in the White House.
Donald Trump made up to $160 million from international business dealings while he was serving as president of the United States, according to an analysis of his tax returns by CREW.
Throughout his time in office, President Trump, his family and his Republican allies repeatedly assured the public that his refusal to divest from his businesses wouldn’t lead to any conflicts of interest. Americans were promised that Trump would donate his salary, which he did, until maybe he didn’t—all while siphoning millions from taxpayers that more than offset his presidential pay. When it came to foreign conflicts of interest, Trump and his company pledged to pause foreign business. They did not.
Trump pulled in the most money from the United Kingdom, where his Aberdeen and Turnberry golf courses in Scotland helped him gross $58 million. Trump’s now-defunct hotel and tower in Vancouver helped him pull in $36.5 million from Canada. Trump brought in more than $24.4 million from Ireland, home to his often-visited Doonbeg golf course, as well as $9.6 million from India, and nearly $9.7 million from Indonesia.
And indications are that he didn’t just make money — he also profited from specific policy choices while in power.
Not long after Trump entered the White House, lobbyists from Saudi Arabia spent hundreds of thousands renting rooms from his DC Hotel.
Lobbyists representing the Saudi government reserved blocks of rooms at President Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel within a month of Trump’s election in 2016 — paying for an estimated 500 nights at the luxury hotel in just three months, according to organizers of the trips and documents obtained by The Washington Post.
At the time, these lobbyists were reserving large numbers of D.C.-area hotel rooms as part of an unorthodox campaign that offered U.S. military veterans a free trip to Washington — then sent them to Capitol Hill to lobby against a law the Saudis opposed, according to veterans and organizers.
At first, lobbyists for the Saudis put the veterans up in Northern Virginia. Then, in December 2016, they switched most of their business to the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington. In all, the lobbyists spent more than $270,000 to house six groups of visiting veterans at the Trump hotel, which Trump still owns.
And there was much more from the Saudis.
The full extent to which Trump’s foreign business ties influenced his decision making as president may never be known, but there is plenty of evidence that Trump’s actions in the White House were influenced–if not guided–by his financial interests, subverting the national interests for his own parochial concerns. For example, while campaigning in 2015, Trump bragged to a crowd in Alabama about his longstanding business ties with the Saudis. “They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million,” he told the crowd. “Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.” In office, Trump continued to benefit from Saudi business and faced repeated criticism, especially in the wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, for his apparent desire to shield Saudi leaders from criticism, going so far as to question US intelligence while parroting allegations from Saudi Arabia that Khashoggi was tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Let me also add that MbS bragged that Kushner had shared classified U.S. intel with him which revealed which of his rivals within the Saudi Royal family had been working with US intelligence.
In June, Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman ousted his cousin, then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and took his place as next in line to the throne, upending the established line of succession. In the months that followed, the President’s Daily Brief contained information on Saudi Arabia’s evolving political situation, including a handful of names of royal family members opposed to the crown prince’s power grab, according to the former White House official and two U.S. government officials with knowledge of the report. Like many others interviewed for this story, they declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about sensitive matters to the press.
In late October, Jared Kushner made an unannounced trip to Riyadh, catching some intelligence officials off guard. “The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy,” the Washington Post’s David Ignatius reported at the time.
What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown. Kushner, through his attorney’s spokesperson, denies having done so.
MbS then used that data to kidnap his rivals trapping them in the Ritz Carlton then beating and torturing them until they provided him with millions.
On November 4, a week after Kushner returned to the U.S., the crown prince, known in official Washington by his initials MBS, launched what he called an anti-corruption crackdown. The Saudi government arrested dozens of members of the Saudi royal family and imprisoned them in the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh, which was first reported in English by The Intercept. The Saudi figures named in the President’s Daily Brief were among those rounded up; at least one was reportedly tortured.
[...]
In the months that followed, the arrestees were coerced into signing over billions in personal assets to the Saudi government. In December, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that Maj. Gen. Ali al-Qahtani had been tortured to death in the Ritz. Qahtani’s body showed signs of mistreatment, including a neck that was “twisted unnaturally as though it had been broken,” bruises, and “burn marks that appeared to be from electric shocks,” the New York Times reported earlier this month.
Some have reported that Jamaal Kashoggi, who had been favored by the Saudi regime, was opposed to the kidnappings and fled the country following them. I’ve heard, but I can’t recall the source right now, that he was reportedly working on revealing this story in the Washington Post when he was killed, and mutilated with a bone saw, on orders from MbS.
In addition to this, there was also a situation where Kushner tried to get Qatar to invest in his failing property at 666 Park Avenue.
Throughout 2015 and 2016, Jared and Charles Kushner negotiate with Qatari investor Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani (known as “HBJ”) to refinance the building. HBJ is a former Prime Minister of Qatar who manages the country’s $250 billion sovereign wealth fund. One of the meetings Kushner reportedly holds with HBJ is in Trump Tower during the transition in December 2016. He agrees to invest at least $500 million. The deal ultimately falls through when the Kushners fail to raise the rest of the funding from other sources, and the potential investors reportedly worry about public scrutiny from Kushner’s role in the Trump White House.
After Trump entered the White House and Kushner joined him on staff, they tried again.
Charles Kushner and associates meet with Qatari Finance Minister Sharif Al Emadi and aides in New York to seek investment in 666 Fifth Avenue from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. No deal is reached.
Then a fake email appeared that linked Qatar to ISIS which cause the UAE and Saudis to implement a blockade of the country. While Tillerson opposed the blockade, Trump supported it.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain sever diplomatic and economic relations with Qatar. They accuse Qatar of financing terrorism, supporting Islamist groups, and undermining efforts to isolate Iran. They impose a land, sea, and air blockade on Qatar.
Secretary of State Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis are both caught by surprise by the blockade, according to Tillerson’s testimony before Congress (p. 92). Tillerson and Mattis both publicly call for calm to deescalate the situation. (See also Dexter Filkins’ reporting.)
In a shock to Qatar, Trump initially expresses support for the blockade, in contradiction to the official U.S. government position of neutrality.
The Qatari interpreted the blockade as a punishment for their refusing to invest with the Kushners.
Important note: The Qataris reportedly believe the blockade may be linked to their rejection of funding for 666 Fifth Avenue. “Some top Qatari government officials believe the White House’s position on the blockade may have been a form of retaliation driven by Kushner who was sour about the failed deal, according to multiple people familiar with the matter,” NBC News reported.
The blockade remained in place until 2018 when the Qatari Investment Fund finally put money into 666 Park Ave.
On Aug. 3, the Kushners reach a deal to bailout 666 Fifth Avenue through a 99-year lease to Brookfield Asset Management for about $1.1 billion in rent for the entire 99-year term paid upfront, easing their financial troubles by allowing them to pay off most of what they owe lenders on the building. The Qatar Investment Authority is the second-largest investor in Brookfield.
The blockade was ultimately lifted against Qatar on Jan 27, 2021 — 7 days after Biden took office.
Evidence indicates that Trump’s profits impacted his decisions in Syria and Turkey.
Other instances of Trump’s business interests bleeding into his administration’s foreign policy abound. In 2019, Trump stunned the US foreign policy establishment by pulling US troops out of northeast Syria. The decision had no obvious benefits to the US and was a bombshell reversal to allied Kurds, but it was a victory for Turkey, where Trump had done business for years.
In China.
In China, Trump again shocked even his GOP allies when he pledged to help sanctioned Chinese company ZTE because, as he tweeted, there were “[t]oo many jobs in China lost,” despite warnings from US intelligence officials that the company’s products may be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans. When Trump’s tax returns were released more than four years later, they showed a Chinese bank account he claimed to have closed in 2015 and, according to CREW’s analysis, more than $7.5 million in income from China.
Ivanka was granted 18 Trademarks in China on a “Fast Track” and Trump’s own financial disclosures reveal that he owns 114 Trademarks in China.
Donald Trump's financial disclosures neglected to include hundreds of trademarks he owns — including over 100 in China and six in Russia — until after he left the office of the presidency.
The hundreds of trademarks include the rights for business opportunities expected for someone with Trump's business record, like real estate, golf, beauty pageant, and hotel branding in dozens of countries.
The list also includes more unexpected business opportunities for the former president, like video games, lash extensions, deodorant, and nautical instruments.
And Argentina.
In Argentina, Trump held off on enacting tariffs until after trademarks for his company had been approved.
And more.
The Trumps took advantage of the presidency to revive dormant old deals as well, revisiting projects in countries like India, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, and more during the administration.
Since leaving office Trump has made even more $Millions from Saudi Arabia as he has hosted their LIV Golf Tournaments at his resorts.
The big picture: Trump faced heavy criticism last year for hosting two events for LIV Golf — one in Miami and one in Bedminster, New Jersey.
- The newly released LIV Golf schedule for 2023 shows tournaments at the Trump National Golf Club near Washington, D.C., as well as Trump's New Jersey club and his Doral course in Miami.
Zoom in: Saudi Arabia has been accused of "sportswashing" by funding the golf league in an attempt to boost its global image.
Former President Trump defended the LIV Golf circuit in July 2022 before the Bedminster event, saying the league is "worth billions of dollars" in publicity for Saudi Arabia.
Now LIV has merged with the PGA and how much of that ends up in Trump’s pocket remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, after leaving the White House Steve Mnuchin was awarded a $1 Billion investment fund from the Saudis, and Kushner was awarded a $2 Billion fund, even against the advice of the investors who were overridden by MbS.
Six months after leaving the White House, Jared Kushner secured a $2 billion investment from a fund led by the Saudi crown prince, a close ally during the Trump administration, despite objections from the fund’s advisers about the merits of the deal.
A panel that screens investments for the main Saudi sovereign wealth fund cited concerns about the proposed deal with Mr. Kushner’s newly formed private equity firm, Affinity Partners, previously undisclosed documents show.
Those objections included: “the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management”; the possibility that the kingdom would be responsible for “the bulk of the investment and risk”; due diligence on the fledgling firm’s operations that found them “unsatisfactory in all aspects”; a proposed asset management fee that “seems excessive”; and “public relations risks” from Mr. Kushner’s prior role as a senior adviser to his father-in-law, former President Donald J. Trump, according to minutes of the panel’s meeting last June 30.
But days later the full board of the $620 billion Public Investment Fund — led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and a beneficiary of Mr. Kushner’s support when he worked as a White House adviser — overruled the panel.
And yet even with all this we still have Rep. James Comer chasing down a $40,000 loan repayment between James Biden and his brother Joe which he claims is “Proof” of foreign influence pedding since James was doing business in China — except that Joe wasn’t Vice President or President in 2018 when this repayment happened.
So who or what was being influenced exactly? Who was buying what from the Biden family by James giving Joe his own money back?
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