Loot
Speaking of Trump about to be arrested, he also failed to report a quarter of a million dollars worth of prezzies from foreign governments.
Donald Trump’s White House failed to report more than 100 gifts from foreign nations worth more than a quarter-million dollars, according to a US government report, and several of those gifts – including a lifesize painting of Trump given by the president of El Salvador and golf clubs from the prime minister of Japan – are still unaccounted for.
The revelations came as part of a report on Friday from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. The report details numerous unreported items, among them 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia worth more than $45,000 in all, including a dagger valued at up to $24,000, and 17 presents from India that include expensive cufflinks, a vase and a $4,600 model of the Taj Mahal.
Funnily enough, there are rules about this.
The Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act requires that gifts above $480 given to the president, vice-president and their families by foreign officials must be reported to the state department.
For very fucking obvious reasons. If they’re not reported, they become bribes.
The top Democrat on the committee, congressman Jamie Raskin, said the findings indicate “a brazen disregard for the rule of law and its systematic mishandling of large gifts”.
Which amounts to taking bribes.
The report is the result of a year-long investigation into Trump’s failure to disclose foreign gifts while in office, according to the Washington Post, and runs 15 pages long.
“Today’s preliminary findings suggest again the Trump administration’s brazen disregard for the rule of law and its systematic mishandling of large gifts from foreign governments, including many lavish personalized gifts that vastly exceed the statutory limit in value but were never reported – some that are still missing today,” said Raskin in a statement.
He’s a greedy corrupt criminal. Maybe it was a mistake to make him president.
I know this is a post about Trump, but I do wish people would learn how to write. It is not the foreign nations that are worth a quarter of a million, it is the gifts.
Yes I scowled at that one too.
I’m of two minds about the life-size portrait. Given that it was likeliy given in an attempt at obsequious flattery, I’m sure it will be as crass and tasteless as the Trump NFTs. As hilarious as it’s likely to be, it might just be better for the rest of us if it were just burned. There’s just not enough brain bleach to clean up the awful consequences of a public reveal. There’s only so much laser-eyed superhero, astronaut-cowboy, imagery one can see and still remain sane.
YNNB: no, we shouldn’t burn it. Nothing about the Trump era should be swept under the rug. As with every country and their unsavory parts of history, what the US needs is a Museum of Why This Should Never, Ever Happen Again.