Companies owned by former US President Donald Trump earned millions of dollars from foreign governments during his time in office, according to Democratic research. Democrats on the US House of Representatives Control Committee yesterday published a 156-page report that Trump's hotels and properties recorded at least $7.8 million in payments at least 20 countries, including from there, during his presidency. and state-controlled companies.
The bulk of the payments – more than five million dollars – came from China, including from the Chinese embassy in the US and Chinese state bank ICBC.
“These countries often spent heavily on apartments and hotel stays at Donald Trump properties, personally enriching President Trump as he made foreign policy decisions that were related to his political agenda and had broad implications for the United States,” it states. the report.
Funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait
It lists in detail payments from individual countries to Trump properties and hotels. In addition to donations from China and some larger sums in the six-figure range from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, it also lists small sums of less than $10,000 from other countries.
The report is based on documents from an accounting firm that long worked for Trump's companies. The committee fought for the documents to be released in long legal disputes. However, the effort was halted after the transfer of power in the House of Representatives, when Trump's Republicans took control.
The top Democrat on the oversight committee, Jamie Raskin, complained that the documents released so far only provide information about a few payments – from two years of Trump's presidency and for four of his companies. The $7.8 million was “almost certainly just a fraction of Trump’s harvest of illicit cash from foreign governments.”