Trump White House Didn’t Mention 117 Foreign Gifts, Say House Democrats – Latest News Update

Washington – The White House under former President Donald Trump has not reported more than 100 gifts given to him and his family by foreign governments while in office, and some of those gifts remain missing, according to a report released Friday by Democratic members of the House Supervisory Committee.

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The missing gifts include a “larger-than-life” painting donated to Trump by the president of El Salvador, and golf clubs from the prime minister of Japan worth more than $7,200, the 15-page report said. A decorated box worth $450 that was gifted to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser, is also missing, the report said.

The missing items are among 117 foreign gifts to Trump and his family worth $291,000 that the White House failed to report to the State Department as required by federal law, according to the report. The commission’s staffers relied on data from the White House and national archives to determine which gifts had gone unreported to the State Department.

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The undeclared items include gifts from Chinese President Xi Jinping, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others.

“The discovery of these unreported foreign gifts raises significant questions about why former President Trump failed to disclose these gifts as required by law,” the report said.

A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBS News about the report.

Under the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, foreign gifts given to federal officials or their families become the property of the U.S. government if their value exceeds a certain value. (For most of Trump’s tenure, the value was $415. It’s currently $480.) The White House is responsible for reporting gifts to the president, vice president, and their families to the State Department, which has a publishes a report on all gifts given each year to government employees.

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The law states that recipients can keep the gifts if they purchase them from the General Services Administration (GSA), but they must still be disclosed to the State Department. The rules are designed to prevent foreign governments from influencing U.S. officials.

Many of the foreign gifts given to Trump or his relatives are still in the possession of the GSA, National Archives and other federal agencies, according to the commission’s report. Some were auctioned off to the public and others were subsequently bought by members of the Trump family, including a $24,000 Saudi dagger and a $13,500 vase that Kushner purchased.

The unreported gifts detailed in the commission’s findings include a $35,000 dagger with an ivory handle, a $12,400 ceramic bowl, a $12,000 silk carpet and a $12,000 saber. The dagger has been turned over to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The bowl, carpet and saber are held by the National Archives, which received many of the gifts when Trump left office.

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The White House reported a number of foreign gifts given to Trump, Kushner, first lady Melania Trump and Trump’s daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump from 2017 to 2019 to the State Department, but it did not report all of them, the report said. . It revealed only one gift to Kushner in 2020 and none to the rest of the Trump family.

Democrats on the committee said they would continue to examine whether the gifts had any effect on US foreign policy.