White House for sale? Trump's pay-for-access foreign policy under fire

Former White House lawyers, diplomatic protocol officers and foreign affairs experts claim Donald Trump's receipt of overseas gifts and targeted investments are "unprecedented", as the White House remakes US foreign policy under a pay-for-access code that eclipses past administrations with characteristic Trumpian excess.

- Andrew Roth Washington

This week the US president was feted in the Gulf states, inking deals he said were worth trillions of dollars and pumping local leaders for investments. He says he is prioritising "America first" - putting aside concerns of human rights or international law for the bottom line of US businesses and taxpayers. But often the bottom line has benefited Trump. His family's wealth has ballooned by more than $3bn (£2.3bn), according to press estimates, and the reported benefits from cryptocurrencies and other investment deals, such as plans for new Trump-branded family properties, may be far larger.

Deals for billions more have been signed by businessmen close to Trump, meaning political support for the White House translates into lucrative contracts abroad.

Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush, said: "When we're negotiating with other countries, the concern is that our negotiating position will change if someone does a favour or delivers a gift to the president of the United States.

"Whether it's trying to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war, or the Middle East or anything else. You know the impression is given that the position of the United States can be swayed and even bought."

Others argue that the message being sent is that US foreign policy is being sold to the highest bidder.

"Trump has put a for-sale sign out front of the White House," said Norman Eisen, the executive director of the legal advocacy group State Democracy Defenders Fund and a White House ethics tsar and ambassador under Barack Obama.