Here's Where Trump Made The Most Money Overseas As President Daily Briefing August 19

Forbes

Foreign businesses provided the real-estate developer with plenty of ethical problems while he was in office—but surprisingly little profit.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2024/08/16/heres-where-trump-made-the-most-money-overseas-as-president/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, here's where Trump made the most money overseas as president.

00:06When Donald Trump took office in 2017, he refused to divest his businesses, even the

00:11foreign ones, bringing overseas entanglements with him into the White House.

00:16From an ethical perspective, it was a disaster.

00:19From a financial perspective, however, it made some sense, at least for a businessman

00:24who obsesses over pennies and refuses to admit defeat.

00:27Forbes analyzed thousands of pages of tax returns, financial disclosures, regulatory

00:32filings, and Trump Organization documents to determine how much President Trump earned

00:37and lost through his overseas empire.

00:40His best deals were his brand licensing and property management agreements, which allowed

00:45him to gather payments from foreign business partners without taking on much risk of his

00:49own.

00:50That dynamic played out, for instance, in the Philippines and India, where Trump earned

00:54an estimated $8 million over four years.

00:58Much less successful, however, were his wholly owned properties, such as golf resorts in

01:03Scotland and Ireland.

01:06The real estate tycoon had invested more than $100 million into those assets before taking

01:10office, but they were still struggling to turn a profit at the time he became president.

01:15By hanging on to them, Trump gave them time to transform into moneymakers.

01:21Here are a few of the top countries in our tour of the world of Trump, ranked by the

01:25estimated operating profits Trump earned in them, as president.

01:291.

01:31Philippines – $4.3 million in operating profits

01:34Trump's licensing business extends to Manila, where a 57-story residential building proudly

01:41displays the Trump name above its front door.

01:44Former Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte named Trump's partner, Jose Antonio, special

01:50envoy for business and trade to the United States shortly before the 2016 election.

01:55After Trump won, the property provided solid returns – more than $1 million a year from

02:012017 to 2019 – until the income stream trickled off in 2020.

02:072.

02:08India – $3.6 million in operating profits

02:13One year after his father became president, Donald Trump Jr. traveled to India to promote

02:17luxury towers fashioned with the Trump brand.

02:21The trip generated plenty of criticism from ethics experts, even as Don Jr. tried to make

02:25the case that everything was above board, insisting, quote,

02:29We don't want any kind of conflict of interest.

02:33President Trump earned an estimated $2.7 million over four years from a project in Mumbai and

02:38nearly $1 million from one in Kolkata.

02:423.

02:43Dominican Republic – $3.2 million in operating profits

02:48Trump promised to do no new foreign deals while in office.

02:51But what counts as a new deal?

02:54Ten years before he became president, Trump reached a licensing agreement in the Dominican

02:58Republic.

02:59The project blew up in the Great Recession, leading to a lawsuit and an undisclosed settlement.

03:05But in early 2017, Eric Trump suddenly showed up in the Dominican Republic, and his father's

03:10old partner said he was, quote,

03:11excited to be working with the Trump Organization in the future phases of the project.

03:17A year later, in 2018, Donald Trump sold land in the Caribbean country for $3.2 million.

03:244.

03:26Canada – $3.1 million in operating profits

03:29Trump's partners at a hotel in Toronto ditched him around the time that he became president.

03:36The breakup apparently came with a nice payment, as Trump's receipts shot up to $2.3 million

03:41in 2017, then disappeared after that.

03:45As the Toronto partnership was fading, another was strengthening.

03:49Trump's partner in Vancouver traveled to D.C. for the presidential inauguration, one

03:54month before cutting a ribbon for his project alongside Eric Trump and Don Jr.

03:59President Trump collected roughly $200,000 a year in management fees through the Vancouver

04:04deal while in office, but his name came off the property after he left the White House.

04:10For full coverage, and to see the rest of the countries on the list, check out Dan Alexander's

04:14piece on Forbes.com.

04:18This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes, thanks for tuning in.

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