美国国家公共电台 NPR Kuwait Celebration At Trump Hotel Raises Conflict Of Interest Questions

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

It's National Day in Kuwait. The annual holiday commemorates 1 the Gulf 2 state's independence from British rule in 1961. For years, the Kuwaiti embassy in Washington, D.C. has been holding a gala celebration to mark National Day. But this year, the venue 3 is creating some controversy 4. NPR's Jackie Northam reports.

JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE 5: For more than a decade, Kuwait's envoy 6 to the U.S., Ambassador Salem al-Sabah, hosted the National Day events at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington. But Sabah says he felt his guests wanted a change, so he looked into the newly opened Trump 7 International Hotel.

SALEM AL-SABAH: It's like a new restaurant opens in your neighborhood and you want to try it, and you hear good reviews about it. And you go and you see it. And we found that it's a great venue for our National Day reception.

NORTHAM: So the Kuwaiti embassy canceled the reservation with the Four Seasons and booked with the Trump Hotel, just a few short blocks from the White House, for their 600 guests. Sabah says he has taken heat for that decision, including suggestions Kuwait is trying to curry 8 favor with the new U.S. president.

SABAH: That is honestly absurd. If people think that for us to rent a ballroom 9 for two hours in a hotel is going to swing open the doors to the White House for us, it's an absurd line of thinking.

NORTHAM: Sabah says people should look at what Kuwait is doing for the U.S. rather than the other way around. And Kuwait has been an ally.

RYAN CROCKER: They are the linchpin in our Gulf security strategy.

NORTHAM: Ryan Crocker is a former career ambassador, which included a posting to Kuwait during the early '90s. He says the U.S. and Kuwait have enjoyed very close ties for years.

CROCKER: There are thousands of U.S. forces in that country. We operate on two Kuwaiti air bases. And the headquarters for the entire anti-Islamic State campaign is in Kuwait.

NORTHAM: Crocker says the problem isn't Kuwait. It's that President Trump has properties all over the world with his name on it. And any time a foreign government holds a reception or rents rooms at a Trump hotel, it opens up speculation 10 about conflicts of interest. Norm Eisen, an ethics 11 expert, says Trump is also violating the Constitution, which says a president cannot accept gifts or benefits from a foreign country.

NORM EISEN: That's what the framers put in the Constitution in the emoluments 12 clause because they were so worried about swag, any kind of swag, coming to an American president, just for the reasons that it would distort presidential decision-making to benefit himself.

NORTHAM: Trump's attorney, Sheri Dillon, said last month the president has a way around that.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SHERI DILLON: He is going to voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the United States Treasury 13.

NORTHAM: NPR sent requests to the White House and the Trump Organization asking how they plan to account for the profits from events involving foreign governments and how donations to the U.S. Treasury will be documented. Requests for clarification were not returned.

Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.