This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 27 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”
How many scandalous activities do you think Donald Trump Jr. can get up to on one hunting trip? Well, new reporting from the Financial Times suggests that his summer trip to Mongolia was about a lot more than hunting.
Let’s start with scandal No. 1: While on that trip, a guide told the Financial Times that the president’s son shot and killed an endangered sheep. As awful as that is, it is unfortunately not that surprising. Donald Trump Jr. has reportedly killed at least two more of that same kind of endangered sheep in the past decade.
Scandal No. 2: While most Americans are struggling to pay for gas at the pump, it appears that this hunting trip may have cost taxpayers nearly $19,000. According to federal records reviewed by the Financial Times, the U.S. embassy in Mongolia’s capital paid $18,715 for hotel rooms tied to an unspecified Secret Service visit at the same time as Donald Trump Jr.’s trip.
As a member of the president’s family, he is entitled to Secret Service protection, but I remember the days when that kind of taxpayer expense tied to a luxury vacation of a member of the first family was a scandal in its own right.
I really don’t think the president of Mongolia wanted to talk to Donald Trump Jr. because of their shared love of hunting. I think it had a heck of a lot more to do with the fact that he is the son of the president of the United States.
Speaking of spending money on the president’s family, that brings me to scandal No. 3: It turns out that attendance on this weeklong hunting trip was the prize given to the highest bidders as part of a series of charity auctions. Records indicate that one bidder paid $140, 000 and another $225,000 for the honor and privilege of joining Donald Trump Jr. on this seven-day hunting trip.
At the auction, Donald Trump Jr. reportedly tried to incentivize bidders by joking that he is “very sexy in camo.” But I doubt the president’s eldest son’s looks or personality are why anyone was willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to go hunting with him.
As the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington put it to the Financial Times: “Buying access to power is an ethics concern, whether it’s through a charity, a wedding, a campaign donation or a lavish gift.”
Speaking of access to power, that brings me to scandal No. 4: After Donald Trump Jr.’s week of hunting, the Financial Times reports that he traded his “sexy” camo for a suit and held a series of meetings. One of those meetings was a dinner with Mongolia’s president.
After the dinner, a spokesperson for the Mongolian government reportedly posted photos on Facebook and wrote that the leader and Donald Trump Jr. discussed U.S.-Mongolia relations and potential business opportunities.
The Facebook post was then quickly taken down. A spokesperson for the Mongolian president told the Financial Times that the two did not discuss politics at the dinner. A spokesperson for Donald Trump Jr. told the paper that it was just an unofficial meeting where they largely discussed the outdoors.
But I really don’t think the president of Mongolia wanted to talk to Donald Trump Jr. because of their shared love of hunting. I think it had a heck of a lot more to do with the fact that he is the son of the president of the United States.
You would think that would be the biggest possible scandal Donald Trump Jr. could get himself into on a hunting trip, right? He is supposed to be firewalled off from his dad. Donald Trump Jr. and his brother run the family businesses while their dad runs the country. Even the implication that Donald Trump Jr. might be using his relationship with his dad to try to set up some sort of political or business deal with the president of another country is a huge deal.
But somehow, that is not the biggest scandal from this one hunting trip — that would be No. 5: According to that report, for two days of this Mongolia trip, Donald Trump Jr. was joined by Umar Kremlev. You may remember him as the Russian oligarch who secretly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars renting a private island for part of Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding weekend in the Bahamas just a few months before this trip.
At the time, Donald Trump Jr. described Kremlev as a personal friend and said they had no business relationship. President Donald Trump and Kremlev have since said the president’s son paid the Russian oligarch back, though we have yet to actually see any proof of repayment.
When asked about Kremlev’s attendance at Donald Trump Jr.’s recent hunting trip in Mongolia, a spokesperson for the president’s son repeated the fact that the two have no business relationship and said their friendship is largely based on their “shared love for hunting, fishing and the outdoors.”
Again, I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I doubt Kremlev’s affinity for Donald Trump Jr. has to do with hunting. He is a Russian oligarch. He is part of Vladimir Putin‘s inner circle.
As the former counterintelligence director of Donald Trump’s own national security council told the Financial Times, “The moment the Russian security and intelligence services figure out someone has a relationship with anyone of high value, they will try to weaponise that.”
Allison Detzel contributed.
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