President Donald Trump arrives Monday in a country featuring the most Trump properties outside the U.S.
The White House hopes the visit will advance trade talks and bolster Trump’s standing with Indian-Americans ahead of the 2020 election.
But it’s also a trip that will create attention that could help Trump-branded properties amid a slumping real estate market and slowing economy in India.
Already, in the days leading up to the trip, some Indian media outlets have referenced the Trump properties in their coverage, with one even suggesting Trump chose his speaking location because of his longstanding ties to realtors in the region.
It’s an issue that has hovered over the entire Trump presidency.
From staying at his own properties, to his attempt to host world leaders at one of his Florida resorts, to his loving odes to his overseas properties while sitting next to the leaders of those countries, Trump has faced constant questions about whether he is using his presidential perch to line his own pockets.
And nowhere are the lines more blurred between Trump the statesman and Trump the salesman than in India — a nation that boasts the distinction of being both the globe’s largest democracy and the Trump Organization’s largest foreign market.
For three years, Trump’s White House has worked with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on trade and a multi-billion weapons sale.
And for three years, Trump’s company has worked to promote its four developments in India that have earned Trump millions of dollars in royalties.
In 2018, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. — who runs the Trump Organization with his brother, Eric Trump — spent several days in India promoting the family’s developments, attending a champagne dinner with condo buyers who plunked down $39,000 deposits and bringing in millions of dollars in new sales.
While there, he also met with Modi behind closed doors.
The next year, Trump’s Indian business partners flew 100 early buyers of his luxury condos near Delhi to visit Trump Tower and Trump Ferry Point golf course in New York City as a way to generate interest in the properties in India.
Some of the Trump Organization’s business partners in India are also connected to the government, creating potential conflicts of interest.
Some also face lawsuits and investigations into financial wrongdoing. And some have touted their relationship with the U.S. president in promotional materials and granted buyers access to members of the first family.
“What you’re looking at — especially in India where he has extensive holdings — is more than problematic. It raises very serious conflicts of interest questions,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a member of the House Oversight Committee, which launched an investigation in March 2019 into Trump’s businesses. “The fact that his two sons run the day-to-day operations of the business that hardly separates it from him politically or financially.”
When Trump became president, he pledged that his company would forgo any new foreign deals while he was in office.
But the Trump Organization still promotes its existing foreign properties and has signaled where it may want to expand after Trump leaves office. India appears to be top of that list.
“After politics, we would certainly look at India and other markets.” Trump Jr told the Indian newspaper Mint in 2019.
But India, he conceded, “would be a big focus of mine. Frankly, it would be easier for me to get going in India because of the relationships we have built up in the last decade.”
After winning the election in 2016, Trump ignored calls to fully separate from his company, which comprises more than 500 businesses, a step past presidents have taken.
He still owns his business but placed his holdings in a trust designed to maintain assets for his benefit.
Trump can withdraw money from the trust at any point without the public’s knowledge.
His decision to link his private business interests with America’s highest public office in an unprecedented way has led to a vast web of potential conflicts of interest, allegations he is using the office to enrich himself and accusations he makes foreign policy decisions based on his businesses.
In the weeks after his election in 2016, Trump met with three of his Indian business partners — Atul Chordia, Sagar Chordia and Kalpesh Mehta — during the presidential transition at Trump Tower in New York, irking government ethics veterans.
Trump has repeatedly denied a connection between his business and his presidency, but multiple lawsuits, Democrats and government ethics specialists have accused the president of improperly mingling the two.
At least one of the Trump Organization’s partners is struggling.
Macrotech, the developer of Trump Tower Mumbai, is saddled with mounting debt and was downgraded late last year by global credit rating agencies, including Moody’s and Fitch.
It has a bond repayment due weeks after Trump’s visit.
The developments took Trump to India at least once in 2014, 10 months before announcing his presidential run, according to interviews.
He attended the launch of the tower in Mumbai and promoted another property in the nearby city of Pune.
According to the president’s personal financial disclosure forms, the company’s Indian properties have earned Trump millions.
Since 2014, Trump has likely earned more than $10 million in royalties from his deals with Indian developers, though exact numbers are not listed.
In 2018, for example, he earned between $1 million and $5 million from the Kolkata property.
“India, among other emerging markets, is the biggest push for our organization,” Trump Jr. says on one of the Indian developer’s websites.
House Democrats are investigating whether the profits Trump receives from spending by foreign governments or U.S. officials at his properties violates the Constitution emoluments clause, which prohibits a president from receiving gifts from foreign governments or any compensation from the U.S. government other than his salary.
Left largely unexplored is the effect Trump that the president’s travel and diplomatic discussions have on his foreign properties.
Trump has met with leaders of at least 10 countries where he has a property or is developing one, as well as leaders of three countries where state-owned companies are developing new Trump resorts, according to White House records.
To the president’s critics, it’s a troubling mixture.
“There’s this complete merging of the Trump financial interests and the president’s actions as president of the United States,” said Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), a member of House Democratic leadership who serves on the Judiciary Committee. “We can have no confidence that the president is not being influenced by his business.”