A Chinese government-owned company has signed on to build a theme park in a vast development in Indonesia that also features a Trump hotel and condos, a deal that stands to benefit US President Donald Trump’s company just as top Chinese envoys head to Washington for trade talks.
In a move that has alarmed Trump critics, an Indonesian company confirmed this week that it hired the subsidiary of state-owned Metallurgical Corp of China to build a theme park in its Lido City development outside Jakarta.
The property owner three years earlier struck a deal for the development to include a Trump-branded hotel, 400 luxury villas and condos, and an 18-hole championship golf course.
Even though Trump’s involvement in the project predated his election, ethics experts say it is still trouble for the president, possibly putting him in violation of the emoluments clause of the US constitution, which bans gifts from foreign governments.
“This clearly benefits the Trump Organization, and therefore its owner Donald Trump,” said Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, who is advising on several lawsuits against the president.
He added that it is irrelevant if the benefit came “indirectly” from China through the Indonesian company.
MNC Land, the Indonesian company that is developing the park, is owned by billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who attended Trump’s inauguration last year.
In a statement, MNC Land said the Trump Organization has “no relationship” with the theme park that the Chinese company is building. It also said that news reports that a Chinese government-backed US$500 million loan for the project had been signed were false.
White House officials steered clear of talk of Chinese backing for the project, dismissing the belief that it could violate the emoluments clause or the Trump Organization’s pledge to refrain from new foreign business while the president was in office.
Staffers pointed to an answer on Monday from White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah, who referred all questions to the president’s business. The Trump Organization declined to comment.
The deal also raised questions about possible links between the investment and the president’s seemingly out-of-the-blue tweet on Sunday in which he called for Chinese telecommunications company ZTE to “get back into business, fast” because “too many jobs in China” had been lost, a call to help that seemed a stark departure from Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
Just last month, the Trump administration ordered a seven-year halt in US shipments of computer microchips and software that are at the heart of most of ZTE’s telecommunications gear. The US Department Commerce of accused ZTE of violating US sanctions by selling to Iran and North Korea.
ZTE cellphones had also been banned from US military bases earlier this year over fears they could pose a security threat.
White House officials denied any connection between the company and the Indonesia project.
Instead, they framed the tweet as a call to protect US jobs — many of the ZTE components are made in the US — and placed it in the context of ongoing negotiations about trade between the two nations.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
SUSPICION: Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing returned to protests after attending a summit at which he promised to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, which critics derided as a sham The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 3,300, state media said yesterday, as the UN aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation. The quake on Friday last week flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, new figures published by state media showed. More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses. A UN estimate
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
OPTIONS: Asked if one potential avenue to a third term was having J.D. Vance run for the top job and then pass the baton to him, Trump said: ‘That’s one,’ among others US President Donald Trump on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term
RSS