and Turkey also booked the Trump hotel last May for an undisclosed amount. Two pro-Turkish organizations that work to aid business and political relations between the U.S. And Kuwait’s ambassador booked the hotel for an undisclosed amount last February for an annual gala. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and other Malay officials also stayed at the hotel last September during an official visit, but no figure was made available for the stay. “They could have paid 10 times more or 100 times more, and we would equally have no way to judge whether the amount paid reflects their actual profits or how they calculated it, and which governments have been patronizing Trump properties,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.Įarlier this year, Public Citizen found that foreign government advocacy groups were among the most high-profile interests using Trump properties dating back to the 2016 election.Īlthough few records are available showing amounts spent by Trump Organization clients, Justice Department foreign agent records revealed that a public relations firm working with the Saudi government spent $270,000 for lodging and catering at the Trump D.C. Ethics experts have challenged the methodology by which the Trump Organization determines its profits as incomplete and misleading. The amount spent at the Trump-owned commercial properties became an issue of debate on social media as media organizations and watchdogs filed public records requests with the U.S. A representative for the Treasury declined to comment. Treasury has confirmed receipt of the check, it also did not provide any details. The Daily Mail first reported the figure on Friday. The review also showed that the trademarks Ivanka applied for after her father’s inauguration got approved about 40% faster than those she sought out beforehand.The company said last week that it had made a donation but refused to disclose the amount or provide any other details, including how the figure was calculated and which foreign governments were involved. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, received 41 Chinese trademarks from the time she was appointed a White House adviser in March 2017 to April 2019, according to an analysis of documents. The New York Times revealed Tuesday that the U.S. Trump has other financial connections to China. Contacted Friday morning, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization initially said that the bank had “consolidated with their other offices in New York.” When told that Forbes might publish that statement, the spokesperson then seemed to confirm that the Chinese bank was in fact maintaining space in the building: “They’ve exited the vast majority of their space in Trump Tower.” The website for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China still lists an address inside Trump Tower. “They are keeping a couple of floors,” Eric Trump confirmed onstage at a business conference in October 2019. But then, the bank decided to stay in the president’s building anyway.
In 2018, the state-owned bank agreed to a new lease in a different office building nearby, suggesting it might leave Trump Tower.
The lease was set to expire on October 31, 2019, according to a debt prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. President Trump debates Joe Biden in the closing days of the 2020 election. Even if you only count roughly 70% of that money as coming from the Chinese government, it still adds up to $1.2 million-or more than three times what the Trump Organization reportedly gave to the Treasury. Operating profit margins inside the building are an estimated 42%, which would suggest that the deal yielded $1.6 million of earnings over those two years. Yet, a document connected to Trump Tower suggests that over those same two years, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was set to pay about $3.9 million in rent. Treasury in 20, Trump’s first two years as president. The Trump Organization reportedly donated a total of $343,000 to the U.S. Perhaps Eric Trump meant all hotel properties, because it sure doesn’t seem like the Trump Organization handed over all their profits from the deal with the Chinese. The next month, first son Eric Trump, who had just taken over day-to-day operations of his father’s business, told Forbes the donations would come from “all the properties.”
But she also said the president planned to donate all foreign government profits at his hotel to the U.S. Trump’s lawyer, Sheri Dillon, claimed that routine business transactions are not violations of the so-called Emoluments Clause. On January 11, 2017, Trump and his team held a press conference inside Trump Tower, not far from the office of the Chinese bank.