Tag: Emoluments Clause

Secret Service Pays Trump $650 Per Night at Trump Resorts

Buck Banks

$650

“President Trump’s company charges the Secret Service for the rooms agents use while protecting him at his luxury properties — billing U.S. taxpayers at rates as high as $650 per night,” the Washington Post reports. “Those charges, compiled here for the first time, show that Trump has an unprecedented — and largely hidden — business relationship with his own government.”

Political Committees Have Spent Over $20 Million at Trump Properties

Buck Banks

+$20 million

Federal political committees have spent more than $20 million at businesses owned by President Trump since the 2008 cycle, according to OpenSecrets. “Roughly 99% of that money has come since the start of the 2016 cycle, when Trump announced his bid for president and began spending campaign money at his own properties.”

Ivanka Trump Made $4 Million from D.C. Hotel Last Year

Buck Banks

$4 million

“Ivanka Trump made $4 million from her investment in her father’s Washington hotel last year,” Bloomberg reports. “She also made at least $1 million from her line of branded apparel, jewelry and other merchandise, down from at least $5 million in the previous year. Trump, 37, announced in July that she was closing her fashion businesses amid controversies over her role in the White House and after some big-name department stores dropped the brand.”

22 Foreign Governments Have Paid Money to Trump

Buck Banks

22

“Representatives of at least 22 foreign governments appear to have spent money at Trump Organization properties, an NBC News review has found, hinting at a significant foreign cash flow to the American president that critics say violates the U.S. Constitution. … The extent and amount of foreign spending at Trump’s hotels, golf clubs and restaurants is not known, because the Trump Organization is a private company and declines to disclose that information.”

Saudi Lobbyists Paid for 500 Rooms at Trump Hotel, Duped Veterans

Buck Banks

500

“Lobbyists representing the Saudi government reserved blocks of rooms at President Trump’s D.C. hotel within a month of Trump’s election in 2016 — paying for an estimated 500 nights at the luxury hotel in just three months,” the Washington Post reports. “The visits were part of an unorthodox campaign that offered veterans a free trip to D.C.– then sent them to Capitol Hill to lobby against a law the Saudis opposed.”

Suspicious Timing: China Loans Trump-Related Project $500 Mil Days after Trump Orders Sanctions Lifted on Chinese Telecom Giant

Jon Ponder

According to a report in the National Review, just 72 hours after Donald Trump ordered his government to reverse sanctions on Chinese telecom giant ZTE, the Chinese government announced it would lend half a billion dollars to a Trump-related project in Indonesia.

The Chinese government is extending a $500 million loan to a state-owned construction company to build an Indonesian theme park that will feature a Trump-branded golf course and hotels…

While the $500 million loan will not be directly allocated to any of the Trump-branded features, Beijing’s contribution of half the project’s total operating budget ensures the success of the broader theme-park venture.

Over the weekend, Trump tweeted out the news that he had ordered the Commerce Department to lift severe sanctions on ZTE because, he said, “Too many jobs in China lost.”

Just last month the Trump administration had accused ZTE of espionage and of doing business with Iran and North Korea.

Trump’s reversal even shocked a Republican.

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