Gulf countries China and Malaysia have spent more than $750,000 on the Washington hotel owned by Donald Trump during his presidency, according to documents released by Congress on Monday.
The Republican billionaire, who is due to announce Tuesday that he is running for a second term, had kept a hotel in his name located near the White House after his 2016 election.
He had been accused of “conflict of interest” because he was frequented by foreign delegations. After several twists and turns, the United States Supreme Court closed the case in January 2021, without the details of costs being disclosed.
But a Democratic-controlled House committee recently obtained documents from the Mazars company that handles the Trump Organization’s accounts.
“Up to $10,000 per night”
They show that “six countries have spent more than $750,000 on President Trump’s hotel, paying up to $10,000 a night for luxury rooms,” said Carolyn Maloney, who heads the commission. “At the same time, they are trying to influence American foreign policy,” she added in a statement.
Thus, Malaysia had spent nearly 260,000 dollars in 2017 to accommodate Prime Minister Najib Razak and his entourage during a state visit, while he was the subject of investigations by the US justice for embezzlement of billions of dollars from the 1MDB sovereign fund, according to this document.
In 2018, the Qatari authorities spent more than $300,000 on this hotel prior to Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani’s visit. And even China, whose relations with the United States are more tense, spent, through its embassy in Washington, about $20,000 on this hotel in 2017, the commission said.
“In view of these revelations,” Carolyn Maloney wrote to the National Archives seeking more documents, with the aim, according to her, of proposing a law that would frame the affairs of future presidents. Donald Trump sold this hotel in May 2022 for $375 million.
Source: BFM TV
