Donald Trump Jr. will deliver a foreign policy speech while on an unofficial trip to India to promote his family’s projects, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Trump Jr. will speak about Indo-Pacific relations at an event on Friday, during which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to speak.
The Trump Organization has also been offering those interested in buying units in Trump properties the chance to meet Trump Jr. through full-page ads about the trip, the Post reported
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“Trump is here — Are You Invited?” the headline of one ad reads, before offering home buyers the opportunity to pay about $38,000 to “join Mr. Donald Trump Jr. for a conversation and dinner.”
The move comes more than a year after Trump Jr. and his brother Eric Trump took over the day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while their father is in office.
Watchdog groups told the Post that the advertisements to meet Trump Jr. and him delivering a foreign policy speech while on a business trip creates a complicated situation.
“Trump’s company is literally selling access to the president’s son overseas,” said Jordan Libowitz, the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). CREW has filed several complaints against the Trump administration.
“For many people wanting to impact American policy in the region, the cost of a condo is a small price to pay to lobby one of the people closest to the president, far away from watchful eyes,” Libowitz said.
Ethics experts had recommended that President Trump sell his assets and put the profits in a blind trust before he was sworn into office, but he declined to do so.
“They are not going to discuss [the business] with me,” Trump said of his sons at the time. “Again, I don’t have to do this. They’re not going to discuss it with me.”