Unaccounted For: Missing Treasures Given To Trump Et Al
I wonder what’s in those top secret boxes that mysteriously found their way from the White House to trump’s La Cuesta Encantada-like estate, known as Mar-a-Lago.
Maybe in one box is a 30-year-old Suntory Hibiki bottle of Japanese whiskey worth $5,800 that Japanese officials gave to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo said he never received the hooch and I wouldn’t think the whiskey is in those boxes anyway because by now Pompeo has probably finished the last drops.
Gifts from foreign leaders to their American counterparts is a tradition as old as the country. Failing to report those gifts is not. The administrations of presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush show no unaccounted gifts given to White House officials, cabinet members or members of the first families, according to the N.Y. Times.
The State Department’s inspector general reported in November that tens of thousands of dollars in gifts given to Trump administration officials were missing and federal authorities are investigating if the Mar-a-Lago trove included classified documents and gifts that should have been reported and turned over to the government.
Maybe, those boxes in Mar-a-Lago contain gift bags worth thousands of dollars that included monogrammed commemorative pewter trays, marble trinket boxes and leather portfolios that were meant to be given to foreign leaders at the the Group of 7 summit in 2020 but were never turned over because the summit was canceled because of the pandemic. Could the items have found their ways into the moving vans as officials vacated the White House after trump’s absolute and for certain defeat in 2020?
Maybe it’s a story of sloppy record keeping, which wouldn’t be a surprise as trump was known to crumple up important documents and flush them down the government toilet. Or maybe it’s something more nefarious, as the trump administration was about as crooked as they get. As of last October, at least 18 people connected to trump have been locked up, indicted, or arrested since trump announced his candidacy in 2015. And there will surely be more, possibly right up to the faux king himself.
How about those robes supposedly made with white tiger and cheetah furs, given to the trumps in 2017 by the Saudi royal family. On the last day of trump’s presidency, the White House turned them over to the General Services Administration and later to the U.S. Interior Department where tests of the robes showed they weren’t made of real tiger or cheetah fur.
These are a small, sampling of the gifts that were given to trump and other officials in 2020 but were never officially reported, in violation of federal rules. Federal law says that gifts worth more than $415 that are given by foreign governments must be reported to the State Department and are the property of the U.S. government and not the individuals who received the gifts. Officials may buy the gifts and the market price, as was routinely done in past administrations.
True to form, the trump administration left office without providing the State Department with an accounting of the gifts that trump, former VP Mike Pence and other White House officials received from foreign governments in 2020. Among the gifts that were not reported were two swords and a dagger given to Jared Kushner, trump’s son-in-law. After trump begrudgingly left the White House, the “oversight” was discovered and Kushner then bought the swords and dagger for $47,920.
In the four years trump was in office, gifts to the trumps and associates have total values in the many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Trump and associates filled out reports for gifts before 2020, though it isn’t known if the lists were complete.
A small sampling of the gifts before 2020 includes one from Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife who gave First Lady Melania Trump an 85-piece porcelain dinnerware set valued at $16,250. The plates have an image of Mar-a-Lago.
Paolo Gentiloni, Prime Minister of the Italian Republic, offered melania a handbag by Ferragamo of Italy, made in red Pamplona calf leather, accordion style with flap cover and tongue fitting into front slot bordered by brass-tone “U,” gold-tone chain-link shoulder strap, in Ferragamo linen sack, in Ferragamo presentation box, in Ferragamo shopping bag. The value, $3,400.
Gifts from Saudi Arabia to the Trumps include a photograph of the Saudi king presented to trump valued at $1,380; clothing worth $700 presented to Trump’s daughter and adviser Ivanka; and a $750 silver Chopard pen to Jared Kushner.
In 2017, Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, gave trump a paper panel displaying five columns of black calligraphy, mounted within machined white silk border, in wood frame and a hand-painted scene of a lakeside pavilion. Value, $14,400.
Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, gave trump a gold pendant necklace with stars dangling beneath a palm tree and crossed sabers further decorated with four emeralds or rubies each, in green leatherette presentation box. The value, $6,400.
Pablo Kuczynski Godard, President of Peru, gifted trump in 2017 a black Kuna Guanaco luxury scarf valued at $650.
Belgium Prime Minister Charles Michel gave trump a limited edition, oak framed print of a cartoon depicting a cowboy eating out of a frying pan with a dog eating a bone, while Indians approach from behind. Value, $470.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nayhan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces, gave trump a bronze sculpture of three standing Oryx on an oval base, worth $3,700.
Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, gave Trump a framed portrait of himself, smiling, holding up his left hand, a U.S. flag in the background, made of stone granules, and known as a “gemstone painting.” The value, $1,880.
Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, Deputy King, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain, gave trump a jet fighter model in sterling silver with gold-plating, with two underhung missiles and four rockets, all in a leatherette-clad presentation box. The value, $4,850.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, gave trump and melania, a cross necklace with large cross pendant with diamond and royal blue gems on a gold chain. The value was $2,900.
Melania also was honored by Mrs. Akie Abe, wife of the Prime Minister of Japan, with a pair of earrings by Mikimoto, in yellow gold, with 10 diamonds and a 7.5 mm pearl nacre. The value, $2,200.
Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, had a bauble for ivanka trump, listed as an advisor to the president, in the form of a Bespoke tiered dessert plate, fine porcelain made up of six plates, hand painted with classical Islamic motifs and worth $625.
Amélie Derbaudrenghien, partner of Prime Minister, Kingdom of Belgium, also honored ivanka with a handbag of Belgian designer Delvaux- limited edition. Blue with a cloud design, it’s worth $1,023.50.
And then Taro Kono, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, chipped in for a Pilot fountain pen for ivanka. The pen had a hand painted matte gold-tone 6-petal rosettes and green leaves, and a 14K gold nib, in wood presentation box. The value, $1,180.
Kushner, “Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the President,” was honored with a gift from Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. That would be another fountain pen, named “the Petra Pen” by Aurora, having 18K rose (cuprous) gold nib, finger grip section, plus portions of cap showing part of the façade of Petra, marked “Petra Aurora” on the collar, in presentation box. Value, $3,630.
Gifts from other nations were not as pricey, like Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan who gave trump pictures of the president and Polish President Andrzej Duda presented Trump with black-and-white photos of Trump and Trump Tower.
Gifts were not only showered on the president and his wife.
Dr. Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, gave ex-Vice President pence a wool pile, hand woven, Afghanis rug, worth $3,200.
In 2017, his Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain, gave Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a William & Son pen set, worth $600.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., got a Narai Phand pewter tea set worth $981.53 in 2018 from General Thawip Netniyom, Secretary General of the National Security Council of the Kingdom of Thailand.
The late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was given a ceremonial pistol worth $500 from Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
And Margaret Murphy, Chief of Protocol and Foreign Travel, Committee on Foreign Relations, picked up a Longines Conquest steel watch, worth $746, from His Majesty, King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Past gifts have included fairly routine items, like pens, cufflinks, ceremonial daggers, paintings and puppies. But there have been some rather strange lagniappe through the years.
In 1986, when Ronald Reagan visited the Indonesian island of Bali, President Soeharto gave him a pair of Komodo dragons as a gift, which were later donated to the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
Saddam Hussein once gave Donald Rumsfeld a video of female Syrian soldiers biting the heads off of live snakes and young male soldiers stabbing a dog to death. The gift was apparently to win U.S. support for Iraq and show the brutality of Iraq’s enemy, Syria. Saddam also gave Rumsfeld a medieval spiked hammer and golden cowboy boots.
In gratitude for the U.S. for joining World War II, China sent pandas to the Bronx Zoo. The U.S. received more pandas from China in 1972, when President Nixon was given a pair, which were then donated to the National Zoo.
In 2009, President Barack Obama gave British Prime Minister Gordon Brown 25 DVDs of classic American films, including Citizen Kane and The Godfather. Unfortunately, England has a different code for DVDs and the gifts wouldn’t work in the United Kingdom.
The Moroccan king sent President George W. Bush a $3 jar of fish bait along with a jewel-encrusted dagger. The Polish president once gave Bush a book on fighting terrorism, and Argentina gave him 300 pounds of lamb.