Democrats say many foreign gifts to Trump remain unaccounted for 

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Adler Theatre on March 13, 2023 in Davenport, Iowa. (AFP/FILE)
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Updated 18 March 2023
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Democrats say many foreign gifts to Trump remain unaccounted for 

  • Among the unreported items are 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia worth more than $45,000 in all 
  • Cufflinks, vase and a $4,600 model of Taj Mahal are missing among 17 presents from India 

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s White House has failed to report more than 100 gifts from foreign nations worth more than a quarter-million dollars, and federal officials have been unable to find a life-size painting of Trump given by the president of El Salvador as well as golf clubs from the prime minister of Japan, according to a report Friday from House Democrats. 

Among the unreported items are 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia worth more than $45,000 in all, including a dagger valued at up to $24,000, and 17 presents from India that include expensive cufflinks, a vase and a $4,600 model of the Taj Mahal, says the report from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. 

Gifts above several hundred dollars that foreign officials give to the president, vice president and their families are required under the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act to be reported to the State Department. The report from House Democrats, citing State Department records, says the number of gifts reported by Trump and his family are lower than the number disclosed by previous presidents. 

All told, the report says, though the White House did report some gifts to State between 2017 and 2019, it failed to report more than 100 foreign gifts with a total value of over $250,000. 

The report says federal officials have not been able to locate a life-size painting of Trump that, according to internal White House correspondence, was commissioned by the president of El Salvador and delivered to the US Embassy in El Salvador as a gift to Trump just before the 2020 US election. According to the report, the US ambassador to El Salvador alerted US officials to the gift and requested help in shipping it. 

The report says that “there are no records of the painting’s disposition” by the National Archives and Records Administration or the General Services Administration but that some records suggest it may have been moved to Florida in July 2021 as property of Trump’s. 

Also unaccounted for are thousands of dollars in golf clubs given to Trump in 2018 and 2019 by Shinzo Abe, then the prime minister of Japan. 

“Today’s preliminary findings suggest again the Trump Administration’s brazen disregard for the rule of law and its systematic mishandling of large gifts from foreign governments, including many lavish personalized gifts that vastly exceed the statutory limit in value but were never reported — some that are still missing today,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a statement. 

He also said that the committee would “remain committed to following the facts to determine the extent to which former President Trump broke the law or violated the Constitution when he failed to report gifts and took possession of valuable items without paying the fair market price for them.” 

A Trump spokesman did not immediately return an email seeking comment. 


US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland

Updated 09 January 2026
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US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland

  • The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol ‌agents were ‌conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland ‌Security ⁠said ​in a ‌statement

A US immigration agent shot and wounded a ​man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.
“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.
The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol ‌agents were ‌conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland ‌Security ⁠said ​in a ‌statement.
The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.
Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in ⁠the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds — a man and a woman — were asking for ‌help at a location about 2 miles (3 km) to the ‍northeast of the medical clinic.
Police said ‍they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a ‍hospital. Their condition was unknown.
The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.
That shooting has prompted two days ​of protests in Minneapolis. Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald ⁠Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.
US officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”
He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community-based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use ‌every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”