Trump Failed to Follow Law on Foreign Gifts, House Democrats Say – By Michael S. Schmidt (The New York Times) / Mar 17 2023
Several gifts given by foreign countries to Donald J. Trump during his presidency are unaccounted for in government records, according to a report released on Friday by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which detailed ways in which the Trump White House had failed to follow the law in how it handled gifts.
The missing items included a $3,040 driver and $460 putter given to Mr. Trump by Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan at the time, and “a larger-than-life-sized painting” of Mr. Trump given to him by El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, according to the report.
A box decorated in silver patterns that a union activist in Egypt had given to Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is also missing, the report said. The box was valued at $450.
The Trump White House, the report said, failed to properly document more than 100 gifts valued at more than $250,000 — including about $48,000 from Saudi Arabia — that had been given to Mr. Trump; his wife, Melania; Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. Those gifts were turned over to the government and ultimately accounted for in records but were never publicly reported, as required by law.
