[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5280-5281]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      TRUMP'S GROWING LIST OF PERSONAL AND BUSINESS ENTANGLEMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Newhouse). The Chair recognizes the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to President 
Trump's ever-growing risk of personal and business entanglements. They 
call into question his ability to serve impartially in the interests of 
the American people. Both he and his administration remain closely 
linked to private companies and foreign entities whose interests are 
often in direct opposition to those of the United States.
  For example, we are well aware of the increasing boldness of the 
Chinese regime and its efforts to extend their economic and military 
influence. Despite portraying China publicly as a threat to economic 
growth of the United States, the President has selected Goldman Sachs' 
executive, Gary Cohn, to be his director of the National Economic 
Council. That is about one of seven individuals from Goldman Sachs who 
have been brought into this administration. Mr. Cohn has just sold his 
$16 million holding in a Chinese bank. This same state-owned Chinese 
bank also happens to be the largest tenant in Trump Tower in Manhattan. 
Isn't that a coincidence?
  Wilbur Ross, President Trump's choice for Commerce Secretary, 
presents similar conflicts of interest. As a man who will play a major 
role in shaping U.S. trade policy, Mr. Ross continues to hold a stake 
worth tens of millions of dollars in the international shipping 
company, Diamond S Shipping Group, a company that not only operates 
ships that fly the Chinese flag, but those ships also call on ports in 
countries, such as Iran and Sudan, that are under U.S. sanctions for 
being state sponsors of terrorism.
  We also know that The Trump Organization was recently awarded sole 
rights to the President's name for products sold in China. He had 
waited 10 years to get those rights. The case was settled just mere 
days after President Trump's phone call with Chinese President Xi 
Jinping, when the President reversed his prior stance on Chinese 
unification and gave a full-throated endorsement to what he termed 
``One China'' policy. That was a reversal from what he had done just 
after the election.
  Meanwhile, according to The New York Times, President Trump's son-in-
law, Jared Kushner, was recently negotiating a real estate deal worth 
hundreds of millions of dollars with a Chinese company closely tied to 
its government. And while it has been reported that the deal was called 
off, the fact that Mr. Kushner is continuing to negotiate private real 
estate deals while serving as a White House employee is deeply 
troubling.
  It was announced last week that Ivanka Trump will now be joining her 
husband in the White House as an adviser to the President with top 
secret security clearance. While she has stepped down from her former 
role at her fashion licensing company that uses the Trump name, her 
decision to transfer her brand's assets into a trust run by her own 
brother-in-law--and her arrangement to continue to receive fixed 
payments from the company--is a matter of serious concern given her 
role in the administration.
  The ever-growing list of valid concerns about the Trump 
administration's conflicting entanglements are taking place at the same 
time that the President is proposing $18 billion in reductions for the 
2017 appropriations process--while he himself, his daughter, son-in-
law, and his Cabinet members continue to benefit off the American 
taxpayer.
  While the President spends millions of tax dollars on securing his 
residences in New York and in Florida and flying to his so-called 
southern White House almost every weekend, he is slashing to zero the 
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative--an absolutely critical program that 
directly impacts my district and many others responsible for preserving 
the world's largest body of fresh water from serious and growing 
environmental threats. What is right about that?
  President Trump also wants to eliminate TIGER grants, a highly 
successful transportation program that provides funding for communities 
across America with backlogged infrastructure projects that create jobs 
and produce robust economic benefits. Everyone agrees on that.
  He has also called for a nearly $3 billion draconian reduction to 
foreign operations endangering our national security. We are the leader 
of the free world the last time I looked, and, meanwhile, he and his 
family spend millions of American taxpayer dollars on travel and 
security costs for themselves.
  With an investigation into President Trump's possible entanglements 
with Putin's Russia already underway, and members of the President's 
family and administration engaging in increasingly brazen conflicts of 
interest, this Congress should pass legislation to prevent these 
increasingly apparent conflicts of interest from endangering our Nation 
and the American people. It is only a matter of time before his 
conflicts of interest harm our country.

[[Page 5281]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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