Next month President Donald Trump is scheduled to make what will be the first trip by a U.S. president to China in eight years. It’s going to be a high-stakes visit, during which he’s likely to discuss trade, fentanyl trafficking, and Iran policy with Chinese President Xi Jinping. And for some reason he’s bringing along his son Eric Trump.
Eric Trump is not a member of his father’s administration. He’s the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, whose holdings include real estate properties and blockchain. A Trump Organization spokeswoman told Reuters this week that Eric Trump will be joining his father in a “personal capacity as a supportive son.” She added that Eric Trump “does not have business ventures in China nor plans on doing business in China” and “will not be participating in private meetings.”
The Trump Organizations says Eric Trump is not taking private meetings and not there to do business, but there’s no way to hold him to his word.
None of that is consolation to anyone concerned about the conflicts of interest that would come with Eric Trump’s attendance: This trip creates all kinds of possibilities for deal-making that could undermine the public interest. And we know Trump knows this, too — if for no other reason than his obsession with slamming the Biden family for Hunter Biden accompanying then-Vice President Joe Biden to China.
In 2019, Donald Trump called for China to investigate the Biden family based on the appearance that Hunter Biden was engaged in inappropriate business dealings during that 2013 trip. Less than two weeks after that trip, Biden’s son secured funding from the government-owned Bank of China for a private equity fund he helped launch as founding board member. Hunter Biden said that during his father’s official trip he met investment banker Jonathan Li for a “cup of coffee.” After the trip, Li became chief executive of the fund and Hunter Biden became a board member. While his position was initially unpaid, afterwards, in 2017, he acquired a 10% stake in the fund.
There’s no evidence Joe Biden used his power as vice president to help his son negotiate that business deal, and there’s no evidence that any law was broken. And unsurprisingly, as he inveighed against Hunter Biden, President Trump made a host of unsubstantiated claims about how much Biden’s son made and how he made it.
But setting aside Donald Trump’s misinformation and bad faith intentions, it’s a legitimate observation that there was something that appeared unseemly about Hunter Biden’s business in China. There’s no way to rule out the possibility Hunter Biden was trading on his surname or his seat on Air Force Two during that trip as he angled for investment from China; indeed, that was inextricable from the entire dynamic. Nor is there any way to rule out that Hunter Biden privately offered or insinuated quid pro quos to Chinese authorities in exchange for its government providing capital for his fund. This is why public officials and their families must avoid potential conflicts of interest as rigorously as possible — because the appearance of possible impropriety allows corruption to thrive. (Hunter Biden later denied any impropriety, but said, “I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father.”)
But legitimate concerns about Hunter Biden’s behavior don’t excuse Eric Trump visiting China with his father; it makes the trip less excusable. At minimum, critics should hold themselves to the standards they demand of others. The Trump Organizations says Eric Trump is not taking private meetings and not there to do business, but there’s no way to hold him to his word, nor is there any way to prevent Chinese government officials or businessmen from privately approaching him with potential deals.
One of Eric Trump’s many business interests that could obviously pose a conflict of interest is American Bitcoin, the bitcoin mining company he co-owns, which works closely with the Chinese company Bitmain, a manufacturer of cryptocurrency mining hardware. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has lobbied the Trump administration to look into the ways Bitmain could pose national security risks to U.S. infrastructure. This all means that the Trump family has a financial incentive to downplay national security questions surrounding this company in order to, for example, secure a more profitable partnership.
Even if Eric Trump does not make any concrete business plans immediately, there’s no way to rule out the possibility of future deals or deals through third parties that are harder to trace. Recall, for example, the remarkable ability of the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to attract a huge amount of Saudi investment to his unimpressive fledgling private equity fund after he left office during Trump’s first term. It certainly seemed like Kushner was cashing in on the friendship he formed with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he worked in the Trump administration. (Kushner and the fund have said they have complied with all laws and requirements.)
In fact, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Chinese government officials aren’t thinking about how to use a relationship with Eric Trump to influence his father’s policy decisions. Donald Trump has made his second term unfathomably corrupt, and he has brazenly profited off his presidency. Trump has a media company, several cryptocurrency businesses, and opaque merchandise businesses. He has reportedly insinuated to oil executives that his policies are for sale. He has secured money from legal settlements that look more like tributes to a king than reasonable financial or legal agreements. The New York Times estimates that Trump has made at least $1.4 billion using the presidency, while The New Yorker estimates that Trump’s family has made at least $4 billion by leveraging his position as president. (The Times notes that “the Trumps and their business partners have disputed some of these estimates.”)
In light of this reality, Eric Trump’s decision to accompany his father doesn’t just look inappropriate, it looks like a signal for investors. Why else bring Eric Trump along on a state visit? He could always visit on his own, privately. But then there would be less opportunity to further blur the line between private and public interests, and less opportunity for Trump’s family members to line their pockets.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.