Trump promised not to work with foreign entities, but his company just did
WASHINGTON — A major construction company owned by the Chinese government was hired to work on the latest Trump golf club development in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, despite a pledge from Donald Trump that his family business would not engage in any transactions with foreign government entities while he is president.
Trump’s partner, DAMAC Properties, awarded a $32 million contract to the Middle East subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corp. to build a six-lane road as part of the residential portion of the Trump World Golf Club Dubai project called Akoya Oxygen, according to news releases from both companies. The club is scheduled to open next year.
The companies’ statements do not state the exact timing of the contract except to note it was sometime in the first two months of 2017, just as Trump was inaugurated and questions were raised about potential conflicts of interest between his presidency and his real estate empire.
The Chinese company, known as CSCEC, is majority government-owned — according to Bloomberg and Moody’s, among others — an arrangement that generally encourages growth and drives out competition. It was listed as the seventh-largest company in China and 37th worldwide, with nearly $130 billion in revenue in 2014, according to Fortune’s Global 500 list.
The company, which has had a presence in the United States since the mid-1980s, was one of several accused by the World Bank of corruption for its role in the bidding process for a road project in the Philippines. It was banned in 2009 from World Bank-financed contracts for several years.
Meredith McGehee, chief of policy, programs and strategy at Issue One, which works to reduce the role of money in politics, said doing business with a foreign entity poses several potential problems for a president, including accusations that a foreign government is enriching him, gaining access to or building goodwill with him and becoming a factor in foreign policy.
The Trump Organization agreed not to engage in any new foreign deals or new transactions with a foreign entity — country, agency or official — other than “normal and customary arrangements” made before Trump’s election.
But Trump ignored calls to fully separate from his business interests when he became president. He put his holdings in a trust designed to hold assets for his “exclusive benefit,” which he can receive at any time. He retains the authority to revoke the trust.
McGehee said Trump clearly knew foreign arrangements could be problematic because he outlined a list of vague restrictions for his company to follow while he is president.
She said the writers of the U.S. Constitution knew they could be. too.
The Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution says officials may not accept gifts, titles of nobility or emoluments from foreign governments with respect to their office and that no benefit should be derived by holding office.
“This is not just a concern of good government organizations,” she said. “It was a fundamental concern of the founding fathers.”