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Trump project in India saw $15 million in sales after buyers were offered dinner with Trump Jr.
This trip by @DonaldJTrumpJr to India -- one minute, a Trump Org. sales trip, the next a foreign-policy speech by president's son -- is an unusually stark example of Trump Org. leveraging its presidential connections for profit.
Link to tweet
Trump project in India saw $15 million in sales after buyers were offered dinner with Donald Trump Jr.
By Annie Gowen February 22 at 9:06 AM Email the author
NEW DELHI — Donald Trump Jr.’s private business trip to India this week — during which he’s expected to give a foreign policy speech alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi, raising conflict of interest concerns — netted $15 million in real estate sales for a Trump Towers project on Monday alone. ... The younger Trump has spent the week promoting the family’s real estate brand across India, where the Trump Organization has more business entities than in any other foreign country. He has been attending a variety of private lunches and dinners with potential buyers and local business leaders as well as enticing buyers to purchase residences in the latest Trump Towers project in Gurgaon, where luxury flats sell for as much as $1.6 million.
....
His visit also prompted questions in Washington. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) raised concern in a letter sent Wednesday to the U.S. ambassador in India about the embassy’s engagement with the president’s eldest son. Trump Jr. is set to give a foreign policy speech at a global business summit in New Delhi on Friday titled “Reshaping Indo-Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation” alongside Modi and other high-ranking Indian government officials. ... The embassy only provided routine support to his Secret Service detail, it said.
“I am concerned that Mr. Trump’s speech will send the mistaken message that he is speaking on behalf of the president, the administration or the United States government, not as a private individual, or that he is communicating official American policy,” Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote.
....
Critics on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have pointed out that Secret Service agents assigned to protect the Trump sons accompany them on these private business trips to promote the family’s brand name, racking up costly hotel bills and draining the agency’s budget. ... In 2017, for example, Eric Trump’s business trip to Uruguay cost taxpayers $97,830 for hotel stays for the Secret Service plus embassy staff that supported the agents during the “VIP visit,” according to purchasing orders reviewed by The Washington Post.
....
Swati Gupta and Vidhi Doshi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
....
Annie Gowen is The Washington Post’s India bureau chief and has reported for The Post throughout South Asia and the Middle East. Follow @anniegowen
By Annie Gowen February 22 at 9:06 AM Email the author
NEW DELHI — Donald Trump Jr.’s private business trip to India this week — during which he’s expected to give a foreign policy speech alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi, raising conflict of interest concerns — netted $15 million in real estate sales for a Trump Towers project on Monday alone. ... The younger Trump has spent the week promoting the family’s real estate brand across India, where the Trump Organization has more business entities than in any other foreign country. He has been attending a variety of private lunches and dinners with potential buyers and local business leaders as well as enticing buyers to purchase residences in the latest Trump Towers project in Gurgaon, where luxury flats sell for as much as $1.6 million.
....
His visit also prompted questions in Washington. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) raised concern in a letter sent Wednesday to the U.S. ambassador in India about the embassy’s engagement with the president’s eldest son. Trump Jr. is set to give a foreign policy speech at a global business summit in New Delhi on Friday titled “Reshaping Indo-Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation” alongside Modi and other high-ranking Indian government officials. ... The embassy only provided routine support to his Secret Service detail, it said.
“I am concerned that Mr. Trump’s speech will send the mistaken message that he is speaking on behalf of the president, the administration or the United States government, not as a private individual, or that he is communicating official American policy,” Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote.
....
Critics on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have pointed out that Secret Service agents assigned to protect the Trump sons accompany them on these private business trips to promote the family’s brand name, racking up costly hotel bills and draining the agency’s budget. ... In 2017, for example, Eric Trump’s business trip to Uruguay cost taxpayers $97,830 for hotel stays for the Secret Service plus embassy staff that supported the agents during the “VIP visit,” according to purchasing orders reviewed by The Washington Post.
....
Swati Gupta and Vidhi Doshi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
....
Annie Gowen is The Washington Post’s India bureau chief and has reported for The Post throughout South Asia and the Middle East. Follow @anniegowen
