Trump Jr. hawks rentals in India, turns political
Visit illustrates what critics describe as ethical quandary.
Landing in New Delhi on Tuesday to begin what was billed as an unofficial tour to promote his family’s real estate interests in India, Donald Trump Jr. wasted little time before skirting into international politics.
Some of Trump Jr.’s first statements in India could be seen as crossing the line into geopolitics, showing how dif- ficult it is to focus solely on business when you’re the son of the U.S. president and you haven’t been exactly shy about defending his political views, statements and poli- cies while running his busi- ness empire.
Asked to compare India with China as a place to invest, President Donald Trump’s eldest son — and acting head of his business empire — told journalists: “As a businessman, I feel things here are substantially more above-board.
“I think the mentality of the people is the same,” the Press Trust of India quoted Trump Jr. as saying. “I think there is probably little bit more honesty.”
The comparison undoubt- edly flattered his Indian hosts, who view China as a strategic rival in Asia, but illustrated what many U.S. critics described as the eth- ical and political quandaries surrounding Trump Jr.’s multicity tour of the coun- try this week.
Donald Trump Jr. has described this as purely a business trip to boost sales in four luxury real estate projects in India that have the Trump name attached. A fifth commercial prop- erty is in the works outside New Delhi, making India the Trump Organization’s most active overseas market.
But Trump Jr. could hardly avoid politics completely.
He is scheduled to deliver a policy address on Friday at a business summit in New Delhi, with the topic listed as “Reshaping Indo-Pacific ties.” The conference brings together executives and pol- icymakers, and organizers say it will “showcase India’s rise in world affairs.”
On the website of the summit, sponsored by a leading Indian newspaper, Trump Jr. received second billing among the speakers, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ahead of the country’s finance min- ister, Arun Jaitley.
And he was due to attend at least two dinners to thank buyers of apartments in Trump-branded proper- ties, including in the New Delhi satellite city of Gurgaon, where a pair of 600- foot towers will house deluxe apartments ranging from $750,000 to $1.5 million.
Trump’s Indian partner, Tribeca, launched the Gurgaon project last month and promised any buyer who put down a 30 percent deposit an invitation to dinner with Trump Jr. In recent days, glossy wraparound advertisements have run in major Indian newspapers reading: “Trump is here. Are you invited?”
The din n ers gave the appearance, to some ethics experts in the U.S., that the Trump Organization was selling access to a member of the president’s inner circle. A representative of Mumbai-based Tribeca who was not authorized to speak to the media said the dinner would be a “meet-and-greet” and “nothing at all about politics.”
Late last year, President Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump led the U.S. delegation to a global entrepreneurship summit in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. Unlike his sister, Trump Jr. has no official White House position.
“By American standards, it’s very unusual to have a presidential family member coming ostensibly on a business visit and talking about things that are not about business,” said Dhruva Jaishankar, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings India think tank in New Delhi.
The Trump Organization has not invested any money in the Indian projects but licensed the use of its name and stands to reap an undisclosed amount of royalties based on sales. Tribeca said this month that sales in the Gurgaon towers — where the apartments are said to feature floor-to-ceiling windows and private elevators — had topped $78 million in the first 30 days, making it the fastest-selling Trump property in India.