Trump Family Invests Abroad

Last week, when he told Wal-Mart that it should “eat” the higher costs his tariffs were putting on products, our felon-in-chief inadvertently acknowledged what he has repeatedly denied. Consumers pay for tariffs, not the countries whose targeted goods become more expensive.

President Donald Trump is responsible for the rising prices; not the retailers he has put in an ill-advised vise.

Trump insists the global trade chaos his tariff wars triggered will have the beneficial effect of increasing investments in the United States, making us stronger and more secure. But this MAGA-motivated policy seems to apply to others, not the Trump family.

In February Trump issued the America First Investment Policy, which set directions for foreign investing in America as a key instrument “to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and significant wealth for the United States.”

While much of the memorandum deals with Chinese influence and threats and other sections promise fast-tracking non-oversight of those investments, Trump played his national security card and proclaimed: “Investment in our economy from our allies and partners, some of whom have tremendous sovereign wealth funds, supports the national interest. My administration will make the United States the world’s greatest destination for investment dollars, to the benefit of all of us.”

Except, the U.S. is not the destination for many investment dollars on Trump’s agenda.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington [CREW] reported March 27 that “real estate developers will be working on planning, building and opening a total of 19 Trump-branded projects around the globe.”

Furthermore, “In eight foreign countries, these developers will seek subcontractors, buyers and permits from the government, creating massive conflicts of interest for Trump, as he weighs American foreign policy against his own financial incentives.”

Trump’s priorities were broadcast Feb. 25 when he – the president of the United States – posted an AI-generated photo depicting “Trump International Hotel and Tower, Gaza.”

CREW noted that, prior to taking office, the Trump Organization released an ethics plan [with a straight face, no doubt] which “did not include a ban on new foreign deals. As a result, the president’s namesake private company, which he still owns and profits from, is free to do business in foreign countries while Trump is in office.”

CREW elaborated: “In Oman, a Trump hotel, golf course and residences are being developed on land owned by the government as part of a development in which an official tourism agency is a partner. A Trump hotel in Serbia is being built on government-owned land, too.”

In June 2023, when Trump’s Omani deal was announced, Virginia Canter, chief ethics council for CREW, told the New York Times: "This is as blatant as it comes. How and when is he going to sell out U.S. interests? That is the question this creates. It is the kind of corruption our founding fathers most worried about."

Other Trump developments CREW found in press releases, news reports and Trump Organization information show Trump foreign developments slated for the United Arab Emirates, India [10], Scotland, Ireland, Philippines, South Korea, Turkey, French Saint Martin, Vietnam, Indonesia, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia – the first stop on his first foreign grift trip.

CREW noted, “The Trumps have particularly deep financial ties in Saudi Arabia.” Those ties are so deep that in 2023, when Trump was accused of inflating the values of his properties by up to $3.6 billion, New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron cited Trump’s deposition where Trump “seems to imply that the numbers cannot be inflated because he could find a ‘buyer from Saudi Arabia’ to pay any price he suggests.”

The judge added, “This statement may suggest influence buying more than savvy investing.”

The judge’s remarks remind us that, in 2018, when the Saudi government murdered and dismembered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a long-time U.S. resident, two of whose four children are American citizens, there were no repercussions.

No repercussions for the Saudis, but six months after the end of Trump’s first term, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, gave more than $2 billion to the Affinity Partners investment fund headed by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Early this month, the Kushner-backed U.S. Atlantic Incubation Partners was greenlighted by the Albanian government to invest $1.4 billion to build a luxury resort on Sazan Island, a former Soviet submarine base.

Kushner also plans another resort in Albania and a project in Belgrade, Serbia.

I am not sure how the many Trump family foreign investments fit with his America First economic rhetoric. But, rest assured, GOP sycophants will defend or ignore Trump’s hypocrisy, just as they do his rampant violations of the emolument clause.