The family business · 2016 campaign · № 13
State-owned Hainan Airlines began a 14-month stay at Trump's Las Vegas hotel days before the 2016 election
- Date
- , Mazars USA accounting records cited in the House Oversight Democrats' report "White House for Sale"
- Subject
- China
- Benefit
- Gifts and payments
- Government
- China
- Beneficiary
- Trump International Hotel Las Vegas (Trump Organization)
- Amount
- $195,662
- Topic
- Ethics & conflicts
- Era
- 2016 campaign
What happened
According to accounting records that Mazars USA produced to the House Oversight Committee, an account in the name of "Hainan Airlines Holding Company Li[mited]" incurred $195,662 in charges at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas between November 4, 2016 and January 1, 2018, the largest single expense on the two hotel ledgers the committee obtained. The Democratic staff report released January 4, 2024 describes Hainan Airlines as a state-owned enterprise whose actual controller is the Hainan provincial government's state-owned assets commission, and notes that its parent HNA Group was seeking U.S. regulatory approvals from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States during 2017, when HNA executives met Vice President Pence and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin. The records do not specify what services were provided over the 14 months. In response to the report, the Trump Organization said it had donated more than $450,000 in estimated foreign government profits to the U.S. Treasury during Trump's term, and Eric Trump said no president had been tougher on China. Freedom House rated China Not Free in its 2016 and 2017 editions.