Trump failed to declare $300,000 worth of international gifts - State Department
The State Department found that Donald Trump received 117 undeclared gifts including a dagger valued at $35,000.
Donald Trump, alongside other members of the Trump family, failed to declare over a 100 gifts valued at nearly $300,000, which they received from foreign governments. The gifts were received during Trump's presidential term between 2017 and 2020.
Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their children are also reportedly responsible for 33 undisclosed gifts with a value of nearly $82,000.
The Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act prohibits a president and federal officials from keeping foreign gifts that exceed the value of $415.
The gifts, given by officials like Chinese President Xi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, were never disclosed to the State Department.
House Democrats expressed that the failure to disclose the gifts raised serious concerns about potential corruption as the gifts could have been used to buy influence on American policy. This concern has not been confirmed.
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee said the missing gifts “suggests serious violations of the foreign Emoluments Clause,” according to CNN.
While the State Department began the investigation a year ago, it released a statement on March 17 stating “new information obtained by the committee reveals that the failures to disclose gifts from foreign governments were much broader than previously known and extended throughout the Trump Administration.”
“Internal White House records obtained by the Committee indicate that the listings provided by the White House to the Office of the Chief of Protocol failed to include all the foreign gifts received by former president Trump and the First Family not only in 2020, but throughout the Trump Administration,” the report added.
The gifts
“In total, records indicate that former president Trump and the First Family received 117 unreported foreign gifts, valued at roughly $291,000,” concluded the release.
The gifts include a dagger from Emir of Qatar (valued at $35,000), Uzbek silk carpeting (valued at $12,000) and a life-size painting of Trump from El Salvador which remains missing.
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