CNN WashingtonCNN —
President Donald Trump has cast himself as tough on
China and promised that his trade negotiations with Beijing would economically benefit everyday Americans, even as Trump-owned properties have continued to contribute to the trade deficit with the country he rails about.
Since September of last year, Trump properties in the US have imported more than eight tons of goods from China, CNN has learned by reviewing US customs data compiled by ImportGenius, which tracks information companies are legally bound to provide to US customs when they import goods to the US. The imports have arrived to decorate his properties while the President has sought to dress down China.
More than six tons of tables were delivered to Trump International Hotel in New York last fall. On the same day, Trump
tweeted, “We are doing very well in our negotiations with China.”
‘Pawns’ of China
A shipment of two tons of wooden and glass showcase cabinets arrived at the Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles from Shanghai just two months ago. Meanwhile Trump has increasingly gone after China for the country’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump tweeted about the “incompetence of China” and accused them of “mass Worldwide killing” two days after the cabinets arrived in LA.
Trump has said he left the running of his business empire to his sons when he became President but did not completely relinquish control of the companies in which he still has stake, and it is unclear how much of a role, if any, he plays in the day-to-day business.
Imports to Trump’s properties are at odds with the economic nationalism of his “Make America Great Again” slogan.
The preferences of the businesses bearing Trump’s name also appear to be very different from the preferences Trump has called on US executive agencies to embrace.
Trump issued an April 2017 executive order that federal agencies should “Buy American” and then doubled down on that message in January 2019, issuing an executive order on “Buy-American Preferences” for infrastructure projects, and then in July of that year signing an order on “Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials,” that announced his administration would enforce the Buy American Act of 1933 “to the greatest extent permitted by law.”
The Trump organization’s Chinese purchases also contradict messages coming from the members of his own Cabinet warning Americans to be wary of doing business with China.
