An examination of available financial data done by the government watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has uncovered a massive level of income for Trump’s businesses at several properties of his across Scotland and Ireland.
The total throughout his presidency was over $80 million, according to CREW’s report. (It reached $82.5 million.) CREW identified a total of up to $160 million of Trump’s businesses’ income while he was in office as originating with “businesses in foreign countries with interest in U.S. foreign policy,” indicating the totals from Scotland and Ireland were large portions of the sum. The Trump properties in those two locales include a golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, and two found in Scotland at Aberdeen and Turnberry — all of which Trump has repeatedly promoted while in the public spotlight, potentially boosting (in very real terms) his business profits as he runs for (or holds) public office.
The Doonberg property has repeatedly come up in stories of government figures suspiciously utilizing the location for stays in the country, sometimes seemingly without regard for the actual logistical sense it made. While vice president alongside Trump, even Mike Pence spent some time there during an Ireland trip in 2019, although the property and Dublin, where Pence was having meetings and where Ireland has its capital, are on opposite sides of the (small) European country. Even the military has spent some money at Trump’s area properties, spending about $125,000 at the Turnberry spot.
And when Trump himself has visited these properties, there have sometimes been accompanying costs for the U.S. government — or related costs for his campaign, meaning that taxpayer or donor money has sometimes gone into the Trump family coffers. He has generally been making money off his time pursuing elected office, as became a major issue amid concerns about the spending done by the committee that put on the festivities for Trump’s inauguration in 2017, when they spent big on space at a hotel in D.C. itself then tied to Trump. Trump’s D.C. hotel, where foreign leadership sometimes even stayed, potentially providing a direct avenue for the development of conflicts of interest, is no longer under him, having been recently sold off.
