Donald Trump said Monday that he has located the prized golf club that was given to assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The $3,755 driver was included in a list of gifts the former president received while in office but was never found or reported, according to the Democrats’ Oversight Committee.
The valuable, unused driver was found with several others at the Mar-a-Lago Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday.
The driver and a giant portrait of Trump from the president of El Salvador are among gifts totaling $300,000 that are either missing or not reported — and that includes $48,000 from Saudi Arabia alone.
Former President Donald Trump said Monday that the $3,755 golf driver gifted to him by assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) has been located after missing fate, according to a censorship report.
Government rules also require officials to report gifts — even of nominal value — to the State Department, which keeps and records them. Trump indicated that the driver was in a locker with other clubs at Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach County, Florida. has not been used before”
“I am pleased to report that after a search, we were able to find the gold (paint) driver that was given to me by my friend and former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe,” Trump wrote. It was in a locker, along with other clubs, at Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach County, Florida. It has not been used before.
He continued, “On the basis of the fact that this club was given to me prior to my assumption of office, I have been told there are no reporting requirements, but I nonetheless refer it to NARA.” “My company buys thousands of clubs a year!”
Transparency comes from Trump when he is put under a microscope regarding material from his time as president.
The FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last year to recover classified documents the former president took from Washington when he left the White House in 2021.
In the following months, classified materials were also found in the homes of former Vice President Mike Pence and President Joe Biden — leading to greater scrutiny of the executives’ document-keeping requirements.
Government rules also require officials to report gifts — even of nominal value — to the State Department, which keeps and records them.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was sending the club to the National Archives — though he claimed it was given to him before he became president.
Golf Driver has a net worth of around $4,000
The Trump White House failed to report more than 100 foreign gifts given to the president and the First Family that were above the reporting threshold, including some gifts valued at thousands of dollars, according to the Democrats’ report, which was produced over more than a year. Oversight Committee when Rep. Jimmy Raskin was chairman.
The panel discovered 16 unreported gifts to the Trump family totaling more than $45,000, including three gifts to President Trump and one gift to the President and First Lady. Unreported gifts included a Saudi dagger valued at $24,000 and two sets of swords totaling $8,800. General Services Administration (GSA) records show Mr. Kushner purchased and kept five Saudi gifts, including a dagger,” according to the report.
Trump’s oversized portrait was presented as a gift from Salvadoran President Najib. And he sent it to Trump’s designated ambassador to the country, Ron Johnson, a veteran CIA officer, according to emails released by the committee.
He sent the photo to an aide to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, writing that it was “packed and ready to be shipped to President Trump.”
“I just want to know where the shipment is,” Johnson added.
One Trump aide asked for the best address for shipping, and another aide said it “delivered to WH!”
Kushner himself wrote simply: “Can we take care of this – very nice”.
One of the photos in the appendix shows the Salvadoran president giving his thumbs up next to a photo of Trump starting at the knees. The chief’s head is slightly higher than the chief’s which makes the image the size of a mature man.
According to the Democratic Party report, there are no records of the disposition of the painting. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had no records of this painting and the GSA had no records of the purchase of this gift.
But transition documents “indicate that the Director of Correspondence in Donald J. Trump’s office certified “full compliance with the final disposition of the gifts” in April 2021, and records obtained by the commission indicate that the photo may have been transferred to Florida as “property.” ‘. ex-president in July 2021, the report suggests.
The document also cites ‘reports’ of a $3,755 golf driver given to Trump by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who died last year.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a report last month that Trump and his family members failed to report gifts totaling nearly $300,000 – including a giant painting of the former president (pictured)
Federal Register listings showed no reported foreign gifts to President Trump from Prime Minister Abe in 2017, 2018 or 2019, but internal White House records reveal that Prime Minister Abe gave additional golf clubs to President Trump during visits to Trump International Golf Club and Kasumigaseki Country Club in 2017 and 2018,” employees reported, including a $460 bat and driver #3040.
The archives do not have any records of these golf clubs and they do not have golf clubs in their possession. The GSA also does not keep records of golf clubs purchased. The committee is still seeking to determine the final disposition of these gifts, the report says.
But there may be errors. The report says that the disposition of Egypt’s gift to Kushner remains “unknown”.
A footnote indicates “a box decorated with silver patterns with an estimated value of $450 received from Kamal Abbas, General Coordinator of the Trade Union and Workers Service Center in 2018.”
But a former official referred to a government document stating that the box was in the Presidential Materials Division, with the name of the vault—45—and the box number.
He describes it as “personal equipment, a rectangular box with a hinged lid and a certificate stating that it is ‘pure silver.'” However, the markings in Arabic state that it is 90% silver.
According to the report, the “failure to disclose gifts from foreign governments was much broader than previously known and extended through the Trump administration.”
The total included gifts worth $48,000 from Saudi Arabia. The gifts came from a series of powerful leaders and governments.
The report also mentions a valuable sword and dagger
“Unreported foreign gifts include gifts from Chinese President Xi Jinping, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and other foreign government officials,” the report stated.
It came within a week when Vice President Oversight James Comer released bank information on one of Hunter Biden’s aides, including a bank transfer that showed Beau Biden’s widow Haley Biden received $35,000 in transfers around the time one of Hunter’s aides got 3 Millions of dollars from a Chinese company.
Today’s preliminary findings again point to the Trump administration’s blatant disregard for the rule of law and its systematic mishandling of large gifts from foreign governments, including many lavish personal gifts well in excess of the legal limit of value, yet unreported—some not Still missing today, Raskin said.
Gifts not reported by Trump totaled $150,000, and gifts not reported by the First Family and Trump totaled more than $250,000, according to the report.
