In a revision to an earlier filing, the Republican presidential hopeful showed specific income from foreign ventures, speaking fees and real estate

WASHINGTON, D.C (TIP): Former president Donald Trump disclosed new details about roughly $1 billion in earnings in a revised financial filing covering much of his post-presidency, including money from foreign ventures, speaking fees and a Florida golf course, says a Washington Post report. Trump reported several hundred sources of income in an initial April financial disclosure but provided only broad ranges for the income he received from each source. The revised Trump filing provides new details, such as a dollar amount for nearly a hundred sources of income, including his largest ones, which sum to over $1.2 billion, according to a Washington Post tally.

The polling leader for the Republican nomination in 2024 disclosed more specific earnings from speaking fees than previously known, including at least $2 million for speaking at events hosted by Hak Ja Han Moon and a group she co-founded with her husband Sun Myung Moon, the late leader of the Unification Church, and $2.5 million to comment on a boxing match. In addition, he disclosed that his wife, Melania Trump, earned $1.2 million from speaking fees.

Under disclosure rules, candidates typically show a broad view of their finances by providing ranges of valuation for their income and liabilities, as Trump did on his initial filing. In the new filing, Trump provided ranges for some items but also put in a number of specific larger amounts. In two cases in the revised filing, Trump disclosed earnings outside the range he had previously indicated, according to the Post tally. In reporting income from a golf resort in Ireland, Trump went from saying his earnings were less than $201 to saying he received an amount in euros that today would be equal to $6.2 million. In another instance, Trump initially reported income between $1,001 and $2,500 from a carousel in New York’s Central Park, but revised the amount to $2,873 in the July filing.

Trump also added in the new report that he paid off an additional loan held by Deutsche Bank, a mortgage on his Doral, Fla., golf club valued at between $25 million and $50 million.

The revised filing was provided by the Office of Government Ethics after the agency noted the existence of the updated paperwork in an online database accessible to the public. The new filing was certified on July 6 by the office’s director, Emory Rounds, whose term expired on July 12. Rounds could not be reached for comment.

Don Fox, former general counsel and acting head of the OGE during the Obama administration, said it’s not unusual for the office to ask for clarification from filers with complicated finances.

But he said “the fact that Emory Rounds did not sign it in April would tell me that he was not satisfied that all the disclosures required by law had been made at that time. Those are pretty wild swings in valuation.”

Patrick Shepherd, an OGE spokesman, asked to comment on the revised filing, said via email that the agency is “committed to transparency and citizen oversight of government. However, OGE does not respond to questions about specific individuals.”

Fox said Trump, in revising the filing with specific amounts, went beyond the requirement of providing information in ranges by disclosing the exact amount he earned. It is not typical for a candidate to go beyond the ranges, and it is not clear why Trump went beyond the requirement. The report is required under guidelines from the Office of Government Ethics that say a presidential candidate is required to file within 30 days of becoming a candidate and on or before May 15 of each year of candidacy. Trump, after receiving two extensions, filed his initial report on April 14. The filing mainly covers part of 2021 and all of 2022, and at least one reference to 2023, for a payment of $100,000.

The new filing contains an array of updates that offer further insight into Trump’s finances and his complex domestic and international business interests. In one of the most substantial revisions, Trump had reported in his April filing that he made more than $5 million in income from a golf course at his Doral resort in Florida, while the revised filing said he earned $159 million. While those statements don’t conflict, they do provide another example of why the new filing has a larger valuation. Trump’s detailing of the more than $1 billion came from sources including hotel sales, golf revenue and licensing fees in the July disclosure. His April filing, which did not provide exact numbers on his income, reported more than 25 sources of income over $5 million.

In the July filing, Trump reports three sources of income over $100 million, including $284 million from the sale of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, $159 million from his Miami golf resort and $199 million across four partnerships with Hudson Waterfront Associates. Some of this income had been previously known but not described in detail in his initial filing. For example, while he reported in April that the Washington hotel sale brought in more than $5 million, it had already been widely reported that the sale price was around $284 million — the amount he declared in the July filing. But some of the other newly disclosed details had not been known. The new report says Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs the social network Truth Social, reported receiving about $1.2 million in advertising, a paltry sum compared with the ad revenue of Twitter and other social media rivals Trump has long said it would supplant.

In late 2021, the company said a planned merger with a special purpose acquisition company would raise its value to up to $1.7 billion. That merger remains frozen amid a federal investigation, and in the financial disclosure, Trump said the company was worth no more than $25 million. The new filing also sheds light on the money that Trump received as part of fundraising events.

In one example, Trump was paid $900,300 for participating in a Dec. 3, 2021, event in Florida, and his wife, Melania Trump, was paid $250,000 for what appears to be the same event, according to the filing. Before the event, the New York Daily News reported that Trump was “set to pose for 90 photos with guests” at $10,000 a pop.

“Trump does get a piece of the pie, but the lion’s share will go to charity,” organizer Brad Keltner told the outlet. Keltner did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump also reported more than a dozen speaking engagements, including two at Universal Peace Federation World Summits. The events, which amounted to $2 million, were hosted by the Universal Peace Federation and its co-founder Hak Ja Han Moon, whose late husband Sun Myung Moon co-founded the group and also founded the Unification Church. Church and federation spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump’s single most lucrative speaking engagement was $2.5 million in fees from Triller Legends II LLC in Hollywood, Fla., on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12, 2021. After this story posted online, a lawyer for Triller confirmed that was Trump’s payment for commentating a fight between Evander Holyfield and Vitor Belfort on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Trump previously called the payment amount “obscene,” TMZ reported, but the exact amount does not appear to have been known until Trump’s new filing.

Triller said in a statement that “The payment made to Trump for his commentary was consistent with the fees typically received by celebrity commentators,” and cited what it called Trump’s “successful hosting” of previous boxing events.

Fox, the former acting OGE head, said such filings as the one Trump submitted are essential for voters to examine before the election. “It all comes back to the integrity of the executive branch and confidence that the person holding executive branch office is conducting the people’s business, not personal business,” Fox said. “As a president is not subject to conflict-of-interest laws, the only real remedy for dealing with potential conflicts is complete transparency.”

Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, applauded the OGE for pushing Trump to provide more detailed information, saying it is crucial for voters to understand potential conflicts of interest.

“When we have exact numbers, you get a much better look of seeing what his actual net worth is, and where potential conflicts of interest exist,” Libowtiz said. “We haven’t had a president making millions of dollars from overseas business before. These disclosures show exactly where money is pouring in, and that’s something Americans need to know.”
(Source: Washington Post)