House Democrats on the Oversight Committee released documents Thursday showing that Donald Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments while he was president.
Democrats are seeking to use the 156-page report to show the apparent hypocrisy of Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, as House Republicans have been trying unsuccessfully to prove that Hunter Biden helped his father secure the 2020 election through international deals.
Thursday’s report showed that China paid the most money of all foreign governments to Trump’s business interests at $5.5 million, with Saudi Arabia coming in second, at more than $615,000. Notably, the U.S. Constitution says that presidents cannot accept any form of money from a foreign nation without “the consent of the Congress,” which Trump did not seek.
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Foreign nations gave money to Trump businesses including Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.; Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas; Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York; and Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza in New York, according to the report.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, wrote in the report that Trump elevated “his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest,” which “violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous commander in chief.”
Trump has insisted in the past that he does not have a conflict of interest, saying in 2016: “The law’s totally on my side, meaning, the president can’t have a conflict of interest.” In 2018, Trump lawyers said the former president planned on donating business income from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury, though the amount donated allegedly did not match the amount raked in through foreign business deals.
