Trump hotels not tracking foreign cash despite Trump promise




The Trump Organization has not been tracking all possible payments it receives from foreign governments, despite President Trump’s promise to donate all profits earned from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury in an effort to avoid conflicts of interest, according to a new report. 

NBC News said sources claim that organization employees are not requesting information regarding whether money the organization will receive for reservations or other business comes from a foreign government.

NBC cites a Trump Organization company pamphlet saying the organization does not “attempt to identify individual travelers who have not specifically identified themselves as being a representative of a foreign government entity.”


The company policy implies that the Trump hotels are not actively checking whether they're receiving money from foreign governments, instead relying on foreign governments to report themselves.

The pamphlet says the organization estimates foreign government profits, rather than calculating them, on the grounds that it's “not practical" to calculate funds. 

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), slammed the policy in a letter, claiming it allows foreign payments to remain hidden from the public.

"Under the policy outlined in this pamphlet, foreign governments could provide prohibited emoluments to President Trump, for example through organizations such as RT, the propaganda arm of the Russian government," Cummings said, referring to the Russian-owned RT cable network.

"Those payments would not be tracked in any way and would be hidden from the American public.”

Cummings has pushed for the Trump Organization to brief Congress on the policy by June 2.

Trump officials claim there is no legal obligation to decline foreign payments, but said they are donating foreign government profits out of an abundance of caution.

The constitution's emoluments clause prohibits the president from receiving foreign gifts.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a Washington ethics group, released a statement Wednesday calling the Trump Organization’s plan for dealing with foreign government payments “wholly inadequate.” 

Last edited by Goose (5/25/2017 4:10 am)