Foreign leaders fume as Trump scores lavish gifts from Swiss billionaires — then cuts their tariffs
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When Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) had his home raided over an alleged bribery scheme, investigators found gold bars. Now, a gold bar has been handed to President Donald Trump by Swiss billionaires visiting the White House. Not long after, tariffs on Switzerland were cut.
The engraved gold bar, coupled with a $130,000 Rolex desk clock, may not be the reason Trump “decided to slash 39 percent tariffs on Swiss imports to 15 percent,” but it is raising questions.
The Guardian reported Friday that Pasquale Tridico, an Italian MEP, was “disgusted” by the move.
“This is really awful,” he said. It seems to be a case of “making foreign policy the policy of individuals."
Swiss Green Party president, Lisa Mazzone, called out "the Swiss elite" for being "poisoned" by Trump's "corrupt logic."
“It is unacceptable that the federal council is relying on the help of an economic elite that represents private interests and lacks democratic legitimacy in its negotiations with the US president,” she added.
None of the items were reported until “internet sleuths” began tracing the origins of the new clock on Trump’s Oval Office desk, the report said. They pored over photos and ultimately found the one showing seven Swiss billionaires.
The billionaires called it “a modest, refined expression of traditional Swiss watchmaking," said The Guardian.
“Trump loves being fawned over by billionaires. It’s terrible that one has to shower the US president with gold to get Switzerland back on his agenda," deputy editor-in-chief of CH Media, Doris Kleck, told radio station "bz Basel."
The White House claimed that the gold bar and Rolex had nothing to do with the tariff cuts. Instead, Trump's staff said that the deal came about after the Swiss pledged “$200 billion to make and hire in America."
Under U.S. rules, such gifts become the property of the government and are placed in the National Archives unless the president buys them or has them displayed in a museum or presidential library.