Lawmakers, and even Trump’s own staff, are questioning whether his business deals are influencing U.S. foreign policy.
President Donald Trump was sitting beside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office in March when he fondly recalled his luxury golf resort on Ireland’s west coast.
He gushed about his two tony Scottish resorts months later while standing next to French President Emmanuel Macron in France.
And in August, while meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he first suggested that he just might bring the G-7 summit of world leaders to one of his own Florida resorts in 2020. “We haven’t found anything that could even come close to competing with it,” he said.
Trump constantly brags about his properties around the globe when he speaks with foreign leaders in person or by phone, even more than the public instances witnessed out in the open, according to three people familiar with Trump’s conversations with foreign officials. The remarks are permeating every membrane of his presidency so much that they’ve left aides and allies mastering verbal jiu-jitsu to defend his unprecedented approach to fusing personal business interests with his position in high office.
The interactions have led House Democrats — who have already launched an impeachment inquiry into whether Trump is illegally profiting off the presidency — and sometimes even his own staff to question whether his namesake businesses are influencing U.S. foreign policy.
“He talks up his properties every chance he gets with anyone — with staff, with members of Congress, with the press, with the public, with foreign leaders, with anyone,” said a former White House official. “That’s what he has done. He’s been a salesman. He’s been a PR person for his properties for the last 50 years, so almost out of force of habit, that’s what he does.”
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As president, Trump has met with leaders of at least 10 countries where he has a property or is developing one: Turkey, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Canada, Ireland, Panama, Dominican Republic and the United Arab Emirates, according to his schedules. He also met with leaders of three countries — China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea — where state-owned companies are developing new Trump resorts. Some of the governments are spending their own money on roads and other infrastructure for Trump’s projects.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders create a counterintelligence risk because other countries can use his personal and financial information against him. “They know the truth of those conversations and we may not know what’s being said and they could use that against…him and manipulate him or members of his family,” he said. “That’s always a possibility.”
House Democrats are investigating whether Trump is violating the Constitution, which forbids a president from profiting from foreign governments unless approved by Congress or receiving any money from the U.S. government except his or her annual salary. He already faces lawsuits alleging he violated the Constitution.
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Trump ignored calls to fully separate from his eponymous company, which comprises more than 500 businesses, after he was sworn into office. He still owns his business but placed his holdings in a trust designed to hold assets for his benefit and can receive money from the trust without the public’s knowledge.
Foreign leaders know that. And as they have gotten to know Trump, they have learned to regularly mention his properties in what appear to be attempts to flatter him.
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A former senior administration official said Trump likes talking about his properties with foreign leaders — “not necessarily” to boost his businesses but to display dominance. “It’s literally to show how big and powerful I am,” the person said. “It’s bragging rights.”
Trump has invited the leaders of seven countries — Japan, China, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic — to meet with him at Mar-a-Lago, the resort he has dubbed the Winter White House. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been twice to Mar-a-Lago, which he described to Trump as “gorgeous” in 2017 and 2018, staying overnight at least once as a personal gift from Trump, though the Japanese government didn’t answer questions about the second visit. He also has been to Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter and Trump Tower, according to 1100 Pennsylvania, which tracks visits to Trump properties.
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Trump reportedly asked the president of Argentina to help with permitting problem in Buenos Aires in their first call after the election and spoke to the prime minister of Georgia about his failed development at a White House meeting, according to media reports, but the three former officials say it goes beyond that.
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In January, Trump ran into Kurdish Leader Ilham Ahmed at his Washington hotel, where the president was attending a fundraiser and proclaimed the U.S. would not abandon the Kurds. ”I love the Kurds,” Trump said.
But two weeks ago, Trump reversed course in Syria, moving U.S. troops from northern Syria, leaving the Kurds to take on Turkey alone and some questioning whether his business was a factor.
Trump made the decision after a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who attended the opening of Trump’s towers in Istanbul in 2012. Since Trump was sworn into office, at least five events affiliated with the Turkish government have been held at Trump properties.
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Lawmakers, and even President Donald Trump’s own staff, are questioning whether his business deals are influencing U.S. foreign policy https://t.co/BYnF9C3SNa
— POLITICO (@politico) October 20, 2019
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