The deals made by members of the family of the President of the United States of America (US) Donald Trump around the world, from Vietnam to Serbia, raise suspicions that this is an explicit exchange of favors for favors, or corruption, but there is no evidence of this, writes the British Guardian.
Trump’s eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, formally the guardians of the family business, are leading a global deal-making campaign – they have begun construction of new golf courses, received permits for new skyscrapers, leased the “Trump” brand, and entered a large-scale cryptocurrency business venture, according to the Guardian in the article “All the President’s Millions: How the Trump Family is Turning the Presidency into Wealth”.
Since Trump’s reelection a year ago, warnings have become louder that American democracy is being eroded by his use of presidential power to advance personal interests, the newspaper said, adding that what is less understood – and perhaps more dangerous – is the damage it is causing elsewhere.
“A prosecutor in Serbia under pressure to drop a major case, villagers in Vietnam learning they are about to be evicted, and a convicted crypto mogul from the Persian Gulf receiving a pardon – they all have something in common: they appear to be connected to the Trump family’s campaign to amass wealth around the world,” the text reads.
The impression that Trump’s favor can be bought is reshaping international relations, the Guardian assesses, but it also reports Eric Trump’s insistence that there is a “huge wall” between that money-making and their father’s position – the most powerful man in the world.
“None of what I do has anything to do with the White House,” Erik recently told CNN.
Trump’s son-in-law and occasional diplomatic envoy Jared Kushner, to whose fund the Saudis have given billions, recently said: “What people call a conflict of interest, I call the experience and trusted relationships that we have around the world,” it was reported.
But Christopher Harrison, a senior US foreign policy official under President George W. Bush who now heads the anti-corruption organization The Dekleptocracy Project, is among those accusing members of the Trump family of operating a “pay-to-play” system that benefits those who do business with the president’s family, the London newspaper writes.
Despite allegations of conflict of interest, which the White House denies, there has been no evidence of an explicit exchange of favors. But the Trump family’s business interests raise questions about overturned convictions, the transfer of sensitive technology, the easing of tariffs, the forging of alliances, the Guardian points out.
“If any of this gives the impression of abuse of public office for private gain – known as corruption – ethics experts fear it invites other rulers to do the same,” the text states.
During Trump’s first term (2017-2021), a major concern was whether foreign rulers would rent expensive suites in his Washington hotel to put money in his pocket. Trump promised that there would be no family business deals abroad, but that promise has now been reneged on. And although the president has put his stake in the family business into a trust, his financial filings show that profits continue to flow to him, the paper added.
The Guardian also cites a project that Kushner’s company wants to implement in Belgrade, on the site of the former General Staff complex, which was severely damaged in the NATO bombing in 1999, as one of the Trump family’s businesses around the world.
One foggy morning in Belgrade, two weeks after Trump’s election victory on November 5, Estela Radonjić Živkov, then deputy director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, found two officers from the Security and Information Agency (BIA) waiting for her in her office, writes The Guardian.
The agents, according to the newspaper, introduced themselves politely, but warned her not to challenge the decision to demolish the former General Staff complex to make way for a hotel and Trump Tower, making it clear to her that there was a “state interest” in the project.
The contract, which the Guardian has seen, states that the project is of “special importance,” the newspaper says, adding that these are no ordinary investors and that the Trump Tower, a $500 million hotel and residential building would bring “unsurpassed luxury” to the Serbian capital.
The Guardian also points out that President Aleksandar Vučić, “the authoritarian Milošević propagandist who has ruled Serbia since 2017, needed allies.”
“Mass protests over corruption were growing. His years of cultivating a relationship with (Russian President) Vladimir Putin had left him few friends in the West. But he had some. Jared Kushner had visited the city a few months earlier to launch the project. All that was needed was official approval,” the newspaper wrote.
Radonjić Živkov considered the intervention of the state security service in cultural matters “unusual and worrying.” However, she ignored their warning and went public, but to no avail – the status of a protected cultural property was revoked for the former General Staff complex, the Guardian reminds us.
In March, Donald Trump Jr. flew in for a “cordial conversation,” as Vučić put it, “about bilateral relations between Serbia and the US” – they chatted cordially on Trump’s son’s podcast, the London newspaper adds.
But then the construction of the Trump Tower in Belgrade was called into question – the chief prosecutor for organized crime, Mladen Nenadić, arrested the director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, who admitted that he had falsified the documentation on the basis of which the General Staff complex’s status as a protected cultural asset was revoked, it is reported.
The investigation progressed and the former official implicated close Vučić allies, but on November 7, the ruling majority lawmakers passed a law to facilitate the progress of the Trump Tower construction project, it added.
The Guardian states that it appears that the Trump family is undoubtedly receiving special treatment, but that it is less clear what, if anything, the Serbian regime has received in return.
The newspaper also quotes a statement by Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali, whom he describes as a key Vučić ally, that “it is obvious that the (Trump real estate) project had no influence on recent political decisions.”
US tariffs on Serbia of 35 percent are among the highest in the world, and in October the US imposed sanctions on the Serbian Oil Industry due to its majority Russian ownership, the newspaper reminds, citing Mali’s words to the Guardian that claims of “undue influence” are not supported by evidence.
Serbia’s neighbors include other fragile democracies inside and outside the EU, such as Romania and Albania. In recent months, the Trump family has announced real estate investments in both countries. And it has big plans in places where institutions are even weaker, according to the Guardian.
The newspaper writes that Trump’s most natural allies – first in business and now in politics – have long been the rulers of the so-called petromonarchies in the Persian Gulf, who see no difference between the interests of their countries and the interests of their families.
Since last year, the Trump family’s business in the region has accelerated, including golf courses in Oman and apartments for sale in Dubai, it said.
After the Trumps signed a deal for a golf resort with a state-owned company in Qatar in April, the following month the US president received a gift – a “flying palace” to use as a presidential plane, and then in October he sent US soldiers to protect the small Gulf state, the Guardian reminds us.
In Saudi Arabia, where new golf course and hotel projects are already underway, news emerged in November of another potential venture overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, just days before Trump agreed to sell F-35 fighter jets to the kingdom, the newspaper added.
The Guardian also reports that Eric Trump was the center of attention at the May groundbreaking ceremony for the Trump family’s new $1,5 billion golf complex in Vietnam.
In a country where obtaining permits for real estate construction usually requires years of obstruction, Trump’s venture received approval in three months, the newspaper said.
The newspaper added that a month before the groundbreaking, Trump imposed tariffs of 46 percent on Vietnam’s imports, among the highest in the world. However, in July, Vietnam became the second country, after Great Britain, to reach a customs agreement with the United States, thanks to which American tariffs were more than halved – to 20 percent.
“While there is no evidence that the tariff reduction was an explicit reward for allowing the golf complex to be built, questions remain. Analysts say this style of deal-making – which raises suspicions of political favoritism for the sale – could thwart anti-corruption reforms that were gaining momentum,” the text says.
In Indonesia, the environment ministry reportedly halted work on Trump’s resort. During a Gaza summit in Egypt in October, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto was filmed talking to Trump, apparently about his family’s business interests. “Can I meet Eric?” Subianto asked Trump, who replied that he would tell his son to invite him. “He’s such a nice guy,” Trump added.
The Guardian also reports a calculation by Reuters, according to which the Trumps’ income in the first half of this year increased 17-fold – from $51 million 12 months earlier to $864 million, of which more than 90 percent came not from real estate, but from cryptocurrencies, the Guardian states, adding that representatives of the Trump family have questioned this data.
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