WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump’s White House has failed to report more than 100 gifts from foreign countries worth more than a quarter of a million dollars, and federal officials have been unable to locate a life-size painting of Trump given by the president El. Salvador is also the golf club of the prime minister of Japan, according to a report on Friday from House Democrats.
Among the unreported items were 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia worth more than $45,000, including daggers worth up to $24,000, and 17 gifts from India that included expensive cufflinks, vases and a $4,600 model of the Taj Mahal, the report said. . from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
Gifts above a few hundred dollars given by foreign officials to the president, vice president and their families are required under the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act to be reported to the State Department.
A report from House Democrats, citing State Department records, said the amount of gifts reported by Trump and his family was lower than the amount disclosed by previous presidents.
All told, the report said, although the White House reported some gifts to the State between 2017 and 2019, it failed to report more than 100 foreign gifts worth more than $250,000.
The report said federal officials have yet to locate a life-size painting of Trump that, according to internal White House correspondence, was commissioned by the president of El Salvador and sent to the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador as a gift for Trump only. before the 2020 US election.
According to the report, the US ambassador to El Salvador alerted US officials to the gift and asked for help in delivering it.
The report said there was “no record of the painting” by the National Archives and Records Administration or the General Services Administration, but some records indicated it could be moved to Florida in July 2021 as Trump property.
Also unaccounted for are the thousands of dollars in golf clubs given to Trump in 2017 and 2018 by Shinzo Abe, when he was prime minister of Japan.
The clubs, according to the report “including a putter worth $460 and a driver worth $3,040,” were given by Abe to Trump during his visit to Trump International Golf Club and Kasumigaseki Country Club. The report says that NARA does not have records of the club, and GSA does not have records of the clubs it purchased.
“Today’s preliminary findings show once again that the Trump Administration has disregarded the rule of law and systematically mismanaged large gifts from foreign governments, including many lavish private gifts that exceeded statutory limits but were never reported — some of which are still missing today,” Rep. Jamie Raskin Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a statement.
He also said that the committee will “remain committed to following the facts to determine whether former President Trump broke the law or violated the Constitution when he failed to report gifts and took valuables without paying fair market value.”
A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.