The Trump Organization isn’t tracking payments it receives from foreign governments, making it difficult for President Trump to fulfill his promise to donate profits from foreign governments back to the U.S. Treasury.
MSNBC reported Wednesday a pamphlet from the company says the Trump Organization doesn’t “attempt to identify travelers who have not specifically identified themselves as being a representative of a foreign government entity.”
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The pamphlet also says the Trump Organization plans to estimate profits from foreign governments, instead of calculating them.
“To attempt to individually track and distinctly attribute certain business-related costs as specifically identifiable to a particular customer group is not practical,” the pamphlet says.
Sources told MSNBC Trump Organization employees are not asking whether hotel reservations or business is coming from a foreign government.
Trump promised to track profits to his companies from foreign governments and give that money back to the U.S. Treasury.
Sheri Dillon, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, announced Trump’s decision to donate hotel profits from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury during a January news conference.
Dillon said the president wanted to give the money to the U.S. Treasury because “he wants to do more than what the Constitution requires.”
The Constitution’s Emoluments Clause prohibits the president from accepting any money or gift from a foreign government.
A watchdog group filed a lawsuit against Trump just after his inauguration alleging the president is violating the Emoluments Clause, since his companies accept payments from foreign governments for services rendered.
Trump officials have refuted that argument, and Dillon sought to ease concerns that foreign governments would deliberately overpay for services at Trump properties by promising the president would give profits back to the Treasury.
“Paying for a hotel room is not a gift or a present,” Dillon said in January.
