The Trump administration did not provide information on foreign government bids in 2020 received by former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials, the State Department said Friday. As a result, the ministry said it could not compile a complete and accurate record of gifts received by Trump, his family and other officials during the last year of his term. Under federal law, government officials are required to disclose gifts from foreign governments worth more than $ 415 to prevent bribery and undue influence. The Trump administration’s failure to provide information is the latest example of its tendency to break rules and regulations. “It’s loud and it looks awful,” Richard W. Painter, a former top moral lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, told the New York Times. “Either he was really stupid or he was really corrupt.” Although travel abroad was limited in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper noted that Trump visited Switzerland and India, where he received gifts such as a Gaddy bust, a marble sculpture of Gaddy’s famous the “three monkeys” and a spinning wheel. The White House was also visited by foreign leaders from at least a dozen countries. The State Department’s Office of Protocol made the revelation about the missing items in the footnotes of a partial list of gifts received by U.S. officials in 2020, published on Friday. Administered by a Trump appointee, the ministry said the Office of the Chief of Protocol had not requested the data and that the White House had not provided it. The State Department said it had since tried to gather information missing from current credible sources, but had been told that “potentially relevant files” were not available due to “access rules for retirees’ files”. He also noted that there was a general “lack of adequate record keeping of diplomatic gifts” during Trump’s term. Ethics expert Richard W. Painter told the New York Times that by failing to disclose the gifts, the White House violated the Constitution’s foreign remuneration clause, which makes it illegal for aliens to receive gifts without congressional approval. However, the clause has no criminal or civil penalties, which, he said, makes it extremely difficult for former officials to take responsibility. Trump officials had a history of poor record keeping. Federal authorities are investigating whether Trump aides improperly removed 15 boxes of classified documents and gifts from the White House at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. During his chaotic ousting of the White House, Trump aides reportedly worried that the official gifts given to Trump’s power were inadvertently mixed with his personal belongings. It was also revealed earlier that dozens of items were lost from the State Department’s gift vault during the transition from the Trump administration to the Biden administration, including a $ 5,800 bottle of whiskey given to then-Secretary of State Mike. Trump officials also retained tiger and cheetah fur robes and an ivory dagger donated by the Saudi royal family, despite a White House attorney finding the items may have violated Eid law. The furs were fake, it was finally revealed. Trump’s aides have also been investigated by the State Department for allegations that they stole bags of goodies intended for foreign officials attending the 2020 G7 summit, which was canceled due to the pandemic.
