Lawmakers said the Trump family failed to disclose $250,000 in gifts received from foreign governments while in the White House.
A gold golf club from Japan and swords from the royal family of Saudi Arabia were among the gifts that United States lawmakers said the family of the former President Donald Trump failed to disclose during his tenure.
In a statement released Friday, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee listed more than 100 things they say Trump and his family failed to report during his four years in the White House. The items are valued at more than $250,000.
The list includes 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia worth more than $45,000 in total — including a dagger worth up to $24,000 — and 17 gifts from India that include expensive cufflinks, a vase and a $4,600 model of the Taj Expensive.
Under the US Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, the president, vice president and their families are required to report gifts offered by foreign officials worth more than a few hundred dollars. The State Department has a Diplomatic Gift Unit to keep records of those gifts.
Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the oversight panel, accused Trump and his administration of “disrespect for the rule of law” and a “systematic mishandling of large gifts from foreign governments”.
In a statement, Raskin pledged to investigate the whereabouts of “numerous lavish personalized gifts” that were never reported, adding that the panel was working to determine “whether they may have been used to influence the president in his conduct of foreign policy.” US”.
The list also featured a larger-than-life painting of Trump from the president of El Salvador that committee investigators believe may have been moved to Florida, where Trump owns a beachfront mansion and three golf clubs.
Also unaccounted for were thousands of dollars in golf clubs given to Trump in 2018 and 2019 by Shinzo Abe, the then prime minister of Japan. Those include a $3,755 gold golf driver.
In a joint statement, the Democrats said their report “raises important questions about why former president Trump failed to disclose these gifts to the public, as required by federal law”.
The investigation mirrors a recent investigation launched by Brazilian authorities into allegations that former President Jair Bolsonaro sought to bring jewelry gifts from Saudi Arabia – worth more than $3.2 million – to the country in during his tenure without declaring it an official gift.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro – who is closely aligned with the former US president, earning him the moniker “Tropical Trump” – was ordered to turn over a set of jewelry that escaped Brazilian customs enforcement.
Trump, who is running for re-election in 2024, did not immediately respond to the Democrats’ report.