A report from the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, otherwise known as CREW, outlines up to $160 million in foreign income for Donald Trump throughout his time in office, destroying any narrative that he wasn’t profiting in questionable ways while in power — if not in direct connection to the power he held.
In what have been a series of documented circumstances, the money Trump has made has lined up with foreign policy dilemmas he faced or policy choices he made. CREW highlighted how Trump directly connected his personal affinity for Saudi Arabia to funds he’d made from individuals evidently originating there in commentary at a rally before the 2016 election, although the examples — seen places like Trump’s now defunct hotel in D.C., where foreign money accumulated while it was still operational and Donald was still in office — continue.
Within his first year in office, a Malaysian leadership delegation stayed at the Trump hotel, with over a quarter of a million dollars spent — and a prime minister then at the head of that delegation was also under federal scrutiny in the U.S. for suspected involvement in money laundering. Trump was generally supportive of this figure, Najib Razak, during his stay, as Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have noted.
There’s a distinct possibility, of course, these circumstances represent more than mere coincidences. Per CREW’s breakdown, the foreign income Trump made while president — presumably meaning from roughly the beginning of 2017 to the end of 2020 — included tens of millions of dollars across the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, India, and Indonesia. Country totals ranged from $58 million in the United Kingdom to almost $9.7 million in Indonesia, the organization said, evidently pulling info from the ex-president’s tax records. “The full extent to which Trump’s foreign business ties influenced his decision making as president may never be known, but there is plenty of evidence that Trump’s actions in the White House were influenced–if not guided–by his financial interests, subverting the national interests for his own parochial concerns,” CREW’s team wrote.
The details presumably originate with financial records obtained by the Democratic majority on the House Ways and Means Committee just before Republicans took control, although Trump also recently filed financial disclosure forms associated with his latest run for office. The foreign income is in stark contrast to the many assertions made by Trump and those around him, including family members, about how there was supposedly nothing warranting concern or the declaration of a conflict of interest. Sometimes, they even claimed foreign business moves would be suspended, which didn’t occur.
