Donald Trump Jr.’s Secret Business Meeting in India
Trump Jr. leveraged the presidency for profit, and took unsupervised private meetings with world leaders
Donald Trump Jr. loves to throw around baseless accusations that Hunter Biden (Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son) made a financial killing while on an official Air Force Two trip to China. Those accusations have been thoroughly debunked, but he continues to repeat them: in television interviews, on social media, and in his book Triggered.
Unfortunately for his father’s already struggling campaign, Junior’s constant harangue is causing others to take a closer look at his own sketchy 2018 trip to India, where he met privately with Prime Minister Narendra Modi behind closed doors and returned to the US with a stack of contracts for condo sales worth $15 million.
Trump Junior’s Own “Hunter Biden” Trip to India
In 2018, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. — who runs the Trump Organization with his brother, Eric Trump — spent several days in India promoting the family’s developments, attending a champagne dinner with condo buyers who plunked down $39,000 deposits and bringing in millions of dollars in new sales. His trip was preceded by a huge luxury property ad blitz. While there, he met with Prime Minister Modi privately behind closed doors, and took the stage with government officials to discuss international relations.
The next year, Trump’s Indian business partners flew 100 early buyers of his luxury condos near Delhi to visit Trump Tower and Trump’s Ferry Point golf course in New York City as a way to generate interest in the properties in India. One attendee gushed publicly afterward about meeting the son of a U.S. president on the trip.
“Illegal” Irregularities were Overturned by Modi
When the Mumbai Towers project was just beginning, officials halted construction over what they termed “blatantly illegal irregularities” in the construction itself, and accusations of fraud.
After Modi came to power in 2014, the Trump family returned to India to lobby Modi, and the freeze on construction was lifted.
Blurring the Lines
Some of the Trump Organization’s business partners in India are also connected to the government, creating potential conflicts of interest. Some face lawsuits and investigations into financial wrongdoing. Some have touted their relationship with the U.S. president in promotional materials and promised buyers access to members of the First Family, creating concerns in the US about ethics and the possibility of influence peddling.
Trump Junior also took to the stage with international dignitaries to discuss international relations — specifically Indo-Pacific relations, an act which US embassy officials complained muddies the actual diplomacy in place. As one official points out, “The assumption is he has his father’s ear. By talking about international relations and sharing the stage with government officials, he’s acting as an informal ambassador for the U.S. at the same time he’s selling properties in India. It just blurs the lines even more.”
A French television program reporting on the news called “the President’s son peddling the President’s brand at the same time Donald Trump is in office” was “flat-out bizarre”.
American Taxpayers Footing the Bill
US taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $100,000 for Secret Service costs for Trump Jr’s 2018 trip — a trip that was not piggybacked on any government-authorized appearance or purpose.
“The issue is that essentially the president still owns his businesses, and these trips are being done to make the president money. Essentially the government is spending money for the president’s private businesses,” said Jordan Libowitz, communications director for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) in Washington .
Trump Junior’s claims about Hunter Biden are pure deflection. He himself is the one guilty of blurring lines, leveraging his connection with a U.S. presidency for lucre and profit, and taking unsupervised private meetings with world leaders.
