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Eric Trump responded to a new report that his father, Donald Trump, received millions of dollars from China while president.
On Thursday, House Democrats unveiled a report outlining how Trump's businesses, including his now-closed hotel in Washington, D.C., allegedly profited in the millions of dollars during the Trump presidency, from 2017 to 2021. The report, titled "White House for Sale" and released by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, alleged that Trump received at least $7.8 million from at least 20 foreign countries.
The alleged profits were in "direct violation" of the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause, which bars elected officials from receiving money from foreign governments without permission from Congress, the report said.
The report stems from a years-long investigation launched in 2016, when Trump was first elected, into whether his business transactions with foreign governments violated that constitutional clause.
"The presidency became the fulfillment of a get-rich-quick campaign he
reportedly described as 'the greatest infomercial in political history,'" the report says.
The report found that China, whose relationship with the U.S. has been strained in recent years, paid roughly $5.5 million to Trump's businesses, including payments from the Chinese Embassy in the U.S., the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Hainan Airlines Holding Co.
"As a candidate, Donald Trump accused China of stealing U.S. jobs, orchestrating 'the greatest theft in the history of the world,' and 'raping' the United States with its trade policy," the report says.
"In office, however, President Trump's public rhetoric and engagement with the P.R.C. initially softened. While then-President Trump's policies toward the P.R.C. were frequently inconsistent, they repeatedly deviated from the combative approach he articulated when he made China bashing a pillar of his 2016 campaign," the report says.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's presidential campaign for comment via email.
Eric Trump, who continues to work in his father's hotel business within the Trump Organization, dismissed the report in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He wrote that all of the foreign profits were donated to the U.S. Treasury.
"What a joke! All foreign government profits, for stays at our hotels and other properties while my father was in office, were voluntarily donated to the United States Treasury," he said.
He told The New York Times that the report's narrative is "insane" and that there is "no president in United States history who was tougher on China than Donald Trump."
Others, however, responded to the report with criticism of Donald Trump.
"BREAKING: Trump got $7.8 MILLION from 20 foreign governments while he was president. China was the biggest spender. Saudi Arabia was second. Money flowed through his various hotels. Disgusting corruption — and gross violation of Constitution's emoluments clause," tweeted lawyer Tristan Snell.
Condé Nast legal affairs editor Luke Zaleski tweeted, "Trump is a political mob boss with questionable ties to Russia (manafort), China (bannon) and Saudi Arabia (kushner) whose finances are a mystery. He's currently ruling the GOP in exile after inciting an ongoing deadly insurrection. And the GOP is protecting him from consequences."
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About the writer
Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more