Tiny Red HandsOpen ledger

America First Audit

About this audit and its evidence

Trump sold “America First.” This record traces how public money, power, and risk moved toward family businesses, donors, favored firms, and foreign governments: and what workers, ranchers, retirees, patients, veterans, and small investors were left to absorb.

Reversal ledger

Oldest to latest by event date. Each stop is one dated case.

The Government Lease Beneath the Trump D.C. Hotel

contradicted
Promised
At Trump's January 2017 press conference, counsel for the Trump Organization said the arrangement would isolate him from the business, bar new foreign deals and donate foreign-government hotel profits to the Treasury.Open cited record · 2 sources
The record
GSA issued an estoppel certificate allowing the lease to continue under a revised operating arrangement after Trump took office.Open cited record · 1 sourceGSA's inspector general found that the agency improperly ignored constitutional issues in its lease analysis.Open cited record · 2 sources
Who gained
  • Trump Old Post Office LLC
  • Trump Old Post Office LLC
Who paid
  • General Services Administration
  • General Services Administration
Audit finding
contradicted

The lease remained in place while Trump retained a beneficial interest, and the GSA inspector general found the agency's review improperly ignored constitutional questions; the report did not decide whether an Emoluments Clause violation occurred.

Causal strength: documented mechanism