How Princes, Prime Ministers, and Premiers Paid off President Trump – The India Chapter

New Delhi: During the time of his presidency, former US President Donald Trump’s businesses reportedly received payments totalling at least $7.8 million directly from at least 20 foreign governments, including India, according to a report released by Democrat members of the US House Oversight Committee on Thursday, January 4.

“India secured the fifth position, having spent a total of $282,764 at Trump World Tower in New York and Trump International Hotel in the US capital of Washington D.C. from 2017 to 2020,” said the report.

China outspent the second highest spender, Saudi Arabia, by over nine times. Other countries mentioned in the report include Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Kuwait, and the Philippines.

These details were extracted from documents acquired from Trump’s former accounting firm, Mazars, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The report is titled ‘White House for Sale: How Princes, Prime Ministers, and Premiers Paid Off President Trump’.

Below is the complete text of the India chapter from the report. 

India is home to the largest number of Trump-owned business projects outside of the United States – this was the case when Mr. Trump first took office and appears to remain so as of the writing of this report. Former President Trump’s numerous foreign business entanglements in India and his direction of US foreign policy during his presidency repeatedly intersected, creating conspicuous conflicts of interest. Indeed, Politico observed in February 2020 that “nowhere are the lines more blurred between Trump the statesman and Trump the
salesman than in India.”

It was through his business ventures that Mr. Trump laid the groundwork for his uniquely warm relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In fact, while visiting the White House during President Trump’s Administration, Prime Minister Modi explicitly remarked that Mr. Trump had been “full of very warm remarks and observations for me” when Mr. Trump had previously been in India promoting his business interests prior to his presidency.

During the Trump Administration, the Indian government spent at least $282,764 at Trump properties in New York City and Washington, D.C. This spending encompassed the costs incurred by the Indian government for two units in Trump World Tower, which they owned throughout the Trump presidency, as well as multiple stays at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., by officials from the Indian Embassy in the United States.

At the same time, The Trump Organization, led by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, was moving ahead on multiple projects in India while their father was President. In 2019, OpenSecrets described the importance of the Indian market for Mr. Trump’s business, noting,
“The Trump Organization covets perhaps no other foreign country more than India.”440 Together, India’s emolument spending at Trump properties and Mr. Trump’s deep business ties to India enriched Donald Trump by potentially millions of dollars while he was in office.

The White House Mazars report.

Mr. Trump had been conducting business in India for over a decade before he took office and had five projects underway at various stages of development when he was sworn in as President. He partnered with influential businesspeople in the country, many of whom were
well-connected politically, but whose business practices have been called into question. For example, Mr. Trump entered into business with several individuals implicated in investigations by Indian authorities involving accusations of fraud and other financial misconduct.445 Some of those companies continued to face investigations during Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Mr. Trump reportedly made a positive first impression on Mr. Modi years before he was elected president. In August 2014, shortly after Mr. Modi was elected as India’s Prime Minister, Mr. Trump traveled to Mumbai to promote a Trump-branded project. During that business trip,
Trump praised Prime Minister Modi, who was a political ally of Mr. Trump’s business partner on the Mumbai project, Mangal Prabhat Lodha. In addition to being one of India’s wealthiest businessmen, Mr. Lodha is also reportedly a “powerful,” long-serving state legislator and leader in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr. Modi’s political party. In 2013, when Trump’s Mumbai Tower deal was announced, several of Mr. Lodha’s companies had reportedly been under investigation by Indian officials for corrupt practices and tax evasion, and the Mumbai development was not “a sure thing.” The project’s prospects improved, however, after Mr. Modi took office. Under the Modi government, the investigations into Mr. Lodha’s companies began to wind down, with several investigators alleging that they were forced to end their cases prematurely at the urging of “loyalists” to Prime Minister Modi, according to reporting from the New Republic.

During his 2014 visit to India, Mr. Trump said that he was looking forward to doing business under the Modi Administration, stating: “I do see India as a great place to invest, and I think the election made that even better.” Mr. Trump also commented, “People are coming into India now that maybe would not have prior to the election.” He promised, “We will make investments in India, substantial investments in India. It’s a great place to invest.”

Mr. Trump reportedly “gave more than a dozen interviews to the local media, repeatedly praising Modi for doing a ‘spectacular job’ and improving the country’s image around the world.”

Ahead of Mr. Trump’s presidential inauguration, public reporting observed that his significant business ventures in India created a “potentially serious ethical hazard for a United States president who is also a real estate mogul.” As the New York Times explained in
November 2016:

Several of Mr. Trump’s real estate ventures in India – where he has more projects underway than in any location outside North America – are being built through companies with family ties to India’s most important political party. This makes it more likely that Indian government officials will do special favors benefiting Mr. Trump’s projects, including pressuring state-owned banks to extend favorable loans.

Even as he was preparing to take office, Mr. Trump made time to meet with several of his Indian business partners. The week after his election, President-elect Trump met at Trump Tower in New York with three of the Indian businessmen with whom he worked on a real estate development project in the country. Mr. Trump reportedly discussed both his business ventures in India as well as politics—including his affinity for Prime Minister Modi – at this meeting.

Also in November 2016, India’s foreign secretary, S. Jaishankar, reportedly met with “very senior” members of President-elect Trump’s transition team during a visit to the United States, doing so “[a]midst reports that efforts are on to fix an early meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Donald Trump.”

Mr. Modi would not forget Mr. Trump’s kind words, nor his record as a businessman. According to OpenSecrets, during his official visit to the White House in June 2017, the Prime Minister “reminisced over Trump’s kind comments made during his 2014 trip to India.” The translated comments of the Prime Minister included the following statement: “I do remember very well that when President Trump, when he was not even President, visited India. And when in a media interview, he was asked about me. He was full of very warm remarks and observations for me. I still remember them today.”

Prime Minister Modi also lauded Mr. Trump’s “vast and successful” business experience, which the Prime Minister “predicted would galvanize relations between the United States and India,” according to the New York Times.457 The Wall Street Journal reported that Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the White House came “amid differences between Messrs. Modi and Trump on issues such as trade, climate change and immigration” but that “the two men papered over their differences as they worked to establish a rapport in discussions set over approximately four hours, including a private dinner at the White House. They hugged after their public statements.”

Continued Promotion of Trump Businesses During the Trump Presidency

Just one month after the June 2017 visit of Prime Minister Modi to the White House, the Wall Street Journal reported that “[p]romotional material for the Trump Tower in Mumbai improperly featured a reference to President Donald Trump, showing how difficult it is to separate the president from a brand whose value is based on his name.” The material reportedly stated: “The world’s glitterati have always chosen a unique landmark: Trump,” and included the words: “Donald Trump. The Man. The Icon.” In addition, “an accompanying email did refer to Mr. Trump as POTUS – short for President of the United States – and cited a tweet in which he called the project ‘incredible.’” After being contacted by the press, “the Trump Organization and an Indian development firm marketing the project said the materials had been sent out by a broker without their authorization, and won’t be used again.”459 The invocation of then- President Trump in this marketing campaign nevertheless reflects both how active Mr. Trump’s business in India remained during his presidency as well as how President Trump and his Indian business stood to profit from his presidency.

In the months that followed Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the White House, Ivanka Trump, as a White House official, and Donald Trump Jr., as the head of The Trump Organization, would each make working trips to India. In November 2017, Ms. Trump led the US delegation to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, India, at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi, who accompanied her at the event.

Weeks before Ms. Trump’s visit, the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump Jr. was expected to travel to India to launch Trump Organization residential projects planned for Kolkata, in the Indian state of West Bengal, and in Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi. Both projects had been “inked” prior to Mr. Trump’s election and continued “the family’s promotion of the Trump empire despite concerns over the president’s potential conflicts of interest with foreign governments.”

The New Republic reported that “clearances for the Gurgaon Trump Towers went through in ‘no time,’ based on directives from BJP party leaders in New Delhi” shortly after Ms. Trump’s November 2017 visit to the country for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.463 Mr. Trump Jr. eventually flew to India in February 2018, where he promoted The Trump Organization’s real estate projects on a multi-city tour that alarmed ethics experts. While in New Delhi to publicise the Trump-branded residential building in Gurgaon, major Indian newspapers carried front-page ads featuring photos of Mr. Trump Jr., asking, “TRUMP HAS ARRIVED. HAVE YOU?” and “TRUMP IS HERE. ARE YOU INVITED?”

According to Politico, “His trip net $15 million in real estate sales for the Trump Towers in Gurgaon.” Notably, Mr. Trump Jr. also had a closed-door meeting with Prime Minister Modi while on this business trip.

Donald Trump Jr. continued to personally promote the Trump-branded projects in India throughout his father’s presidency. In 2019, he reportedly met with the buyers of residences in Trump Towers Delhi who had been flown to New York City as part of a promotional effort intended “to generate interest in the properties in India.” They “stayed at Trump Tower and dined with Trump Jr. at Trump Ferry Point.” Politico reported that “at least one buyer gushed about meeting the son of the president.”465 One attendee told the Telegraph India, “It’s a dream come true, shaking hands with the son of the US president. I am ready to buy one more flat if they give it me [sic] at the old price. I am ready to make a single shot payment right now.”

OpenSecrets reported that, “The Trump Organization’s successes in India have coincided largely with Trump’s November 2016 election win,” and these projects were indeed lucrative for Mr. Trump during his time in office. Trump Towers Mumbai earned then-President Trump
between $1 million and $5 million in licensing fees in 2017 alone – even before occupants had been able to move into the building. Then-President Trump disclosed that he earned between $100,001 to $1 million from the project during each of the remaining years of his presidency. Similarly, he disclosed earning between $100,001 and $1 million in annual income from DT Tower Kolkata LLC, his licensing entity for Trump Tower Kolkata, on his financial disclosures covering the first three years of his presidency. Mr. Trump disclosed that during his last year in office, he earned between $50,001 and $100,000 from that venture.

With Mr. Trump’s businesses running smoothly in India during his presidency, Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi continued to publicly support one another and maintain a strong personal relationship. In September 2019, then-President Trump again hosted Mr. Modi in the United
States – this time “in Houston, Texas, at ‘Howdy, Modi!’-a mega-rally attended by some 50,000 Indian Americans.”470 Months later, in February 2020, Prime Minister Modi hosted a “Namaste, Trump!” rally in the city of Ahmedabad “at the opening of the world’s largest cricket
stadium.”

At this rally, which occurred during President Trump’s first and only visit as President to India, Modi and Trump – who was accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, his daughter and Advisor Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner – spoke to “a cheering crowd of more than 100,000.”

Before becoming Prime Minister, Modi had been chief minister of the state of Gujarat, where Ahmedabad is located. In 2002, during Modi’s tenure as Gujarat’s chief minister, a train carrying Hindu pilgrims from a religious site was set on fire near Ahmedabad, unleashing sectarian violence in which, reportedly, “the official death toll was more than 1,000, including 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus,” although “the real numbers are believed to be much higher.”

At the 2020 rally in India, then-President Trump praised the “special relationship” that the United States had with India, stating, “We think we’re at a point where our relationship is so special with India. It has never been as good as it is right now, and I think that’s because of the
two leaders of each country – really we feel very strongly about each other.”

Elsewhere during his visit to India, then-President Trump defended Prime Minister Modi as a proponent of religious freedom, even as violent protests broke out over a controversial citizenship law championed by the Prime Minister that was widely perceived as anti-Muslim.475 At a news conference during his visit, President Trump said, “We did talk about religious freedom, and I will say that the prime minister was incredible in what he told me. He wants people to have religious freedom and very strongly.”

After leaving office, Mr. Trump spoke again of the importance of the special relationship he developed with India as President. He stated in a 2023 interview, “I think India has never had a better friend than me. […] And that’s one of the relationships that, you know, I’ve formed. But India has never had a better friend as President than me.”

Emoluments Paid by India to Trump-Owned Businesses

According to documents produced by Mazars to the Committee, the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations owned two units in Trump World Tower in New York which incurred combined common charges in 2018 of $66,046. Assuming that these charges did not change over the course of the Trump presidency, this report estimates that India paid at least $264,184 to Trump World Tower during the Trump Administration for these units. This estimated total does not include additional charges paid by India in 2018 beyond the baseline
common fees – such as charges for electricity as well as special assessments – and is therefore almost certainly an underestimate. In 2018 – the only year for which Mazars provided records pertaining to these units – in addition to the $66,046 in common charges, India also paid $13,983 in additional charges and fees.

In addition to the emoluments recorded in the Mazars records, according to a public disclosure made by the Indian government following a records request from a journalist, eight Indian diplomats spent $18,580 at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., in February and March 2017.

Mr. Modi’s first and only visit to the White House during Trump’s presidency occurred in June 2017.480 A document provided to the Committee by Mazars shows the “Embassy of India” had an account at a Trump-owned property with a start date of “03/07/2017,” but the document does not show the dates or charges for stay(s) associated with this account (or even the property where the stay(s) occurred). Given that documentation from the Indian government confirming expenditures by India at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., is publicly available – and that an account for the Embassy of India is noted in a document produced to the Committee by Mazars – this report includes the sum disclosed by the Indian government in the total amount of the emoluments paid by India to then-President Trump.