House Democrats have asserted that lavish gifts included a Saudi sword, golf clubs, and a portrait of the former US president himself.
House Democrats asserted on Friday that former US President Donald Trump and his family neglected to disclose over 100 presents worth close to $300,000, raising concerns about how this could have affected Washington’s foreign policy.
The undisclosed gifts include 16 items from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to a new interim staff report made public by Democrats on the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee. Items listed in the report include two sword sets with a combined value of $8,800 and a Saudi dagger that could have cost up to $24,000.
Other reportedly undeclared presents include a life-sized portrait of Trump ordered by the president of El Salvador, a $4,600 Indian replica of the Taj Mahal, golf equipment from the former prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, and books and artwork from Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
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According to documents, former President Trump and the First Family received 117 undisclosed foreign gifts totaling around $291,000, the report says.
This revelation “raises important concerns about why former President Trump neglected to declare these gifts to the public, as required by federal law,” the study claims. It was referring to the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, which mandates that US officials report any gifts that exceed a predetermined minimum value—currently $415—in order to avoid violating international law.
Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), the panel’s leading Democrat, charged that the Trump administration had “brazen disdain for the rule of law” and had “systematically mishandled big presents from foreign governments.”
He added that certain expensive gifts, including Trump’s Salvadorean painting, were missing and that House Democrats are determined to uncover whether or not the stolen items “may have been utilised to influence the president in his conduct of US foreign policy.”
These allegations follow the revelation of documents on Thursday by the House Oversight Committee, which is controlled by Republicans. The documents claim former US President Joe Biden’s family members got more than $1 million from a friend who had business connections with a Chinese energy company.
The president’s son Hunter Biden, brother James Biden, and daughter-in-law Hallie Biden were purportedly given equal shares of this money. The claim was deemed “not accurate” by the president, who also accused House Republicans of “bizarrely targeting” the Biden family.
