Junior Trump insists that he and his family are out of the international business. He is lying.
This isn’t the first time they’ve made this dishonest claim. As Rupar notes above, CNN addressed it a couple of months ago when Eric said it:
In a recent Fox News interview, Eric, discussing Hunter’s dealings, noted that “the difference between us and Hunter is when my father became commander-in-chief of this country, we got out of all international business, right?” Not quite. Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-profit government watchdog group, told CNN that Eric’s claim was the “worst lie I’ve heard in a while.”
Facts First: President Trump’s three oldest children have all been involved with international business in some manner since his election. Furthermore, the President has made millions of dollars from foreign assets associated with the Trump Organization in 2017 and 2018, according to his public financial disclosure reports.
The Trump Organization also continues to market, promote and expand Trump-branded properties all over the world, as recently as last month.
On October 10, The Trump Organization firm TIGL Ireland Enterprises received approval for a new development that the Irish Times reports will double the size of the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland. Per The Trump Organization’s website, the Trump brand is associated with an estate in Scotland, residential property in India, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, the Philippines and Uruguay, and public golf courses in Scotland, Ireland, Dubai, Bali and Indonesia. The golf courses in Ireland and Scotland have accompanying Trump hotels. There’s also a Trump International Hotel & Tower in Vancouver, British Columbia which formally opened in February 2017. As executive vice presidents of The Trump Organization, Trump’s eldest sons have continued to conduct international deals for the family company, despite the President’s initial promise to the contrary.In February 2017,
Eric went to the resort island of Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic, where The Trump Organization has had ties since 2007. After the visit, the president and vice president of Cap Cana’s Council said the relationship between the two organizations “remains incredibly strong, especially with Eric, who has led the project since its inception,” adding that “we are excited to be working with the Trump Organization in the future phases of the project.”
Eric Trump delivers a speech during a ceremony for the official opening of the Trump International Tower and Hotel on February 28, 2017 in Vancouver, Canada.While the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Vancouver was the first property to open with the Trump name after President Trump was sworn in, it was not the last. The month after their father’s inauguration, the Trump sons attended the grand opening of a Trump-branded golf course in Dubai.
While The Trump Organization did not itself develop the course, the Trump brand is associated with the property as part of a licensing agreement. The following year, Trump Jr. visited India to promote Trump-branded apartments for several development projects in Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata and around New Delhi. In June 2018, a few months after Trump Jr.’s visit, construction on the Trump Towers outside New Delhi broke ground. The website for Trump Towers Delhi features a section dedicated to Trump, where Donald Jr. is quoted as saying “we are excited to extend the Trump brand.” All the Trump Towers in India denote on their websites that the properties are not owned, developed or sold by The Trump Organization and that they’re licensing the “Trump” name. These developments represent the same kind of international business that Trump was engaging in before his election.
For years, a majority of The Trump Organization’s international business has come from licensing the Trump name. This August, Trump Jr. was in Jakarta, Indonesia, to promote Trump Residences Bali and Trump Residences Lido at a private event for potential buyers and tenants. Although The Trump Organization signed a contract for the two properties in 2015, The New York Times reported they were not yet built as of Trump Jr.’s visit. According to the President’s 2016 financial disclosure form, he received between $2-10 million for the two properties. In Indonesia, Trump Jr. told reporters The Trump Organization was making conscious efforts to avoid any conflicts of interest, saying “we have turned down a lot of deals.” The next month, the organization received approval to expand their Aberdeen golf course in Scotland.
Eric’s claim that the Trump children “got out” of international business could potentially apply to Ivanka, who shut down her namesake fashion company in 2018, motivated in part by her awareness that to continue could be seen as a violation of ethics laws and as if she was profiteering off of not only her father’s role as President but also her influence as senior adviser to the president.
However, Ivanka’s prior international dealings are the closest to what the President is alleging Hunter Biden did. In April 2017, Ivanka received approval from China for three preliminary trademarks associated with her namesake fashion company the same day she met Chinese President Xi Jinping for dinner with her father, President Trump. Although Ivanka was no longer in a managerial role with the company in 2017, she retained an ownership stake until the following year.
These are just the documented cases of the Trump spawn using the presidency to advance the company’s overseas business. It doesn’t count the obvious conflicts of interest that are presented by Trump delivering certain policies before Trump is out of office and can collect. And there is so, so much we don’t know. The blatant conflicts are everywhere and the Trumps are so corrupt that its fair to assume they have taken advantage of every one of them.
There has never been a more money-obsessed, transactional, greed-head in office than Donald Trump. His entire worldview is organized around scrounging for every last dime and screwing those with whom he does business. He’s even quoted saying in the new “Stable Genius” book that he thinks the military should be making a profit. He told his staff he wants to make it legal to bribe foreign governments, something he actually did with Kim Jong Un when he believed he was susceptible to the inducement that if he stopped building nuclear weapons Trump would arrange for some typically hideous condo developments on the beach.
He’s been pimping his properties with personal appearances and selling access via his private clubs throughout his presidency. And he’s got taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars that went directly into his company’s coffers.
Can anyone in his or her right mind not see that Trump and his spawn have been doing everything in their power to line their pockets while he is in office? It’s absurd. Of course they have.