Former president Donald Trump’s businesses received at least $5.5 million from China while he was in office, according to a new report released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
The foreign payments, which were detailed in the committee’s 156-page report titled “White House for Sale,” collectively included over $5 million from China’s Embassy in the United States, a state-owned Chinese bank, and a state-owned Chinese airline company. House Oversight Democratic lawmakers obtained these financial records from Trump’s former accounting firm, Mazars USA, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
China is one of at least 20 countries to pay a total of roughly $7.8 million to Trump-owned businesses and properties while he was in office, including the former president’s hotels in New York City, Las Vegas, and Washington, D.C., according to the Thursday report. While in the White House, Trump reportedly accepted money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, India, the Philippines, and many more.
“Critically, even this subset of documents reveals a stunning web of millions of dollars in payments made by foreign governments and their agents directly to Trump-owned businesses while President Trump was in the White House,” the report reads. “These payments were made while these governments were promoting specific foreign policy goals with the Trump administration and even, at times, with President Trump himself, and as they were requesting specific actions from the United States to advance their own national policy objectives.”
“By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous Commander-in-Chief,” House Oversight ranking member Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) wrote in the report’s foreword.
The new information comes to light as House Republicans continue investigating President Joe Biden in an impeachment inquiry over his alleged involvement in foreign-business dealings with his son, Hunter.
House Oversight chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) dismissed the report on Thursday, arguing that there’s nothing suspicious about Trump’s businesses receiving foreign payments.
“Former President Trump has legitimate businesses, but the Bidens do not,” Comer said in a statement. “The Bidens and their associates made over $24 million by cashing in on the Biden name in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania. No goods or services were provided other than access to Joe Biden and the Biden network.”
Raskin noted that Trump’s claimed donations of profits to the U.S. Treasury falls short of a president’s constitutional requirements, which forbids the pocketing of any revenue from foreign governments unless Congress approves otherwise.
The result of an eight-year investigation into Trump’s payments from foreign entities during his presidency, the report asks Congress to consider adopting new financial-disclosure rules to conduct proper oversight of sitting presidents and senior executive officials. The committee’s Democratic lawmakers also recommend a formal procedure for presidents and other public officials to seek congressional permission when they receive and intend to keep wealth from foreign nations.