Gulf countries, China and Malaysia spent more than US$750,000 in the Washington hotel owned by Donald Trump during his presidency, according to documents released Monday by Congress.
The Republican billionaire – who should announce Tuesday to run for a second term – had kept, after his election in 2016, a hotel in his name located very close to the White House.
He had been accused of “conflict of interest” because foreign delegations frequented him. After several twists and turns, the United States Supreme Court closed the case in January 2021, without the details of the costs being revealed.
But a committee of the House of Representatives, in the hands of the Democrats, recently obtained documents from the Mazars company which manages the accounts of the Trump Organization.
They show that “six countries have spent more than US$750,000 at President Trump’s hotel, paying up to US$10,000 a night for luxurious rooms,” said elected official Carolyn Maloney, who heads the commission. . “At the same time, they are trying to influence American foreign policy,” she added in a statement.
For example, in 2017 Malaysia spent nearly US$260,000 to accommodate Prime Minister Najib Razak and his entourage during a state visit, when he was the subject of US judicial investigations for the embezzlement. of billions of dollars from the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, according to this document.
In 2018, Qatari authorities spent more than US$300,000 on this hotel ahead of a visit by Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani. And even China, whose relations with the United States are more tense, spent, via its embassy in Washington, nearly 20,000 $US in this hotel in 2017, specifies the commission.
“In view of these revelations,” Carolyn Maloney wrote to the National Archives for more documents, with the aim, according to her, of proposing a law framing the affairs of future presidents.
Donald Trump sold this hotel in May 2022 for US$375 million.