John,

President Trump just can’t stop profiting off the presidency and racking up conflicts of interest. While Trump has repeatedly claimed that his businesses would not do any “new” international business deals during his presidency, that hasn’t prevented numerous conflicts of interest stemming from his current and in-development international properties.

Recent CREW finds highlight how President Trump has turned the presidency into a source of personal profit:

In Argentina, the site of a long-languishing Trump Tower project, President Trump recently was granted two trademarks related to real estate development. The application for and consideration of the trademarks lined up suspiciously with the timing of the Trump administration’s removal and restart of tariffs on Argentina. Not only do we have to wonder whether President Trump may be mixing personal interests with foreign policy, but we have to question whether the Trump Organization is taking steps to restart the dormant Trump Tower Argentina project. Read CREW’s new piece for more.

In Indonesia, two Trump-branded developments are under construction, in partnership with Hary Tanoesoedibjo. Tanoesoedibjo’s daughter, Angela Tanoesoedibjo, was recently appointed Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy by the president of Indonesia. Just last week, she attended a meeting hosted by her father’s company to discuss opportunities to boost tourism which mentioned the developments featuring Trump-branded properties. This is yet another conflict of interest for a development that was already marred by them, including Donald Trump Jr.’s attendance at a launch event that included Indonesian government officials.

Even though we’ve been exhaustively cataloging President Trump’s conflicts of interest since day one of this administration, sometimes we don’t learn of his profiteering until much later. We just learned that Trump’s DC hotel apparently charged his inaugural committee five to eight times the normal room rates, including a five-night minimum booking, raising the cost even further. Read more on CREW’s site.

While the President is currently on trial for abusing the power of his office to benefit himself politically, we also can't forget that since the very start of his presidency, he has used his office to benefit himself financially, itself a serious abuse of the public trust. Here at CREW, we’ve been tracking his conflicts, taking legal action, and pushing for accountability since the moment he took the oath of office, and we’ll keep it up for as long as it takes. If you can, please consider donating to support CREW’s innovative legal and investigative work, so that we can continue this fight for accountability.

Thank you,

Donald Sherman
Deputy Director, CREW

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