- Donald Trump disclosed that he owns hundreds of foreign trademarks in his ethics filings this year.
- He didn't disclose any in the same forms while he was president.
- Trump owns 114 trademarks in China — more than any other country by far, including the US.
Donald Trump's financial disclosures neglected to include hundreds of trademarks he owns — including over 100 in China and six in Russia — until after he left the office of the presidency.
The hundreds of trademarks include the rights for business opportunities expected for someone with Trump's business record, like real estate, golf, beauty pageant, and hotel branding in dozens of countries.
The list also includes more unexpected business opportunities for the former president, like video games, lash extensions, deodorant, and nautical instruments.
Trump's complete list of trademarks was first disclosed in a document known as OGE Form 278e, which the US Office of Governmental Ethics requires for US presidents and vice presidents and candidates for president and vice president.
Until this year, the former US president's ethics forms didn't disclose his trademarks in foreign countries, which can provide him revenue and are issued and can be revoked by foreign governments. He didn't disclose them at all while in office, and he first disclosed the long list in July of this year and amended it in August.
The belated disclosures mean that Americans had little insight into the scope of Trump's foreign asset holdings during his presidency, and are only learning about them as he runs for a second term in the 2024 election.
The list of countries where the former president owns trademarks includes China, Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, Belarus, and other countries heavily sanctioned by the United States, as Forbes previously reported.
The final form Trump submitted during his presidency, dated January 15, 2021, disclosed Trump's financial interests in numerous overseas companies. The only indication of trademark holdings noted is his ownership of a company called "CHINA TRADEMARK LLC." That filing noted the company is "dormant/inactive."
In his following OGE Form 278e form, filed on April 2023, as a presidential candidate, Trump disclosed a long list of foreign trademarks. The April form was made public in July. It notes, without explanation, that he received two extensions totaling 90 days to submit the document.
The updated August version lists numerous corporate entities that were dissolved in December 2022, including an LLC called "Trump Marks Menswear" and another called "Trump Drinks Israel."
The 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner — who frequently complains China is "ripping us off" and has falsely claimed President Joe Biden received more than $1 billion from the country — disclosed more trademarks in China than in any other country by far.
In his latest disclosure, he said he has 114 trademarks in the country. The runner-up is the United States, with 57 (including three for "Make America Great Again"), followed by the United Kingdom, with 26.
An Insider review of the two forms shows the August update includes several more previously undisclosed trademarks, and no longer includes others that were first noted in the April disclosure.
One trademark Trump held in Ukraine is no longer included in the August financial disclosure. The April form said the trademark was related to real estate development, gambling, and video games. Trump still maintains two other trademarks in the country, related to hotel and real estate management.
Trademarks for menswear lines initially disclosed in El Salvador, Mexico, and Venezuela were also removed in the August disclosure form.
In France, a trademark for furniture and "crest design" was also removed. And in Saudi Arabia, trademarks for a home cooking line are absent in the latest disclosure.
Among his trademarks in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, the newest form no longer includes registrations for perfumery and deodorant products.
Newly disclosed in the Trump trademarks, however, is one in Albania, related to advertising, construction, and entertainment.
We don't know how much money Trump made with the foreign trademarks
The disclosures do not include information about how the trademarks are used in each country and what revenue Trump may receive from them. It's not clear why Trump waited so long to disclose the trademarks and why he asked for extensions to file his disclosures.
Representatives for Trump's 2024 presidential campaign didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.
Richard Painter, the White House's chief ethics lawyer during part of the George W. Bush administration, told Insider that the forms may not even capture all of the trademarks Trump owns. Even more, he said, may be owned by LLCs, the assets of which don't need to be disclosed in detail.
The forms also don't expound upon how much money each trademark generates for Trump and where the funds are coming from.
"You only disclose that you own these different entities," Painter said. "You don't have to disclose who's put money into these entities."
Some of Trump's trademarks have been the subject of previous reporting.
According to The New York Times, he first obtained a trademark for Trump Tower in Russia in 1996 and obtained additional trademarks for Trump-branded hotels and other opportunities in 2006 and 2007. Trump sought renewals for those trademarks while he was a candidate during the 2016 election and received some of them on election day, the Times reported.
In China, Trump had 77 trademarks registered before he became president, the Associated Press reported, many of which were renewed during his four-year term. Also during his presidency, China granted several new trademarks linked to corporate entities owned by Trump and more than a dozen more to his daughter Ivanka Trump, according to the Associated Press.
Trump's assets in other countries raise the possibility that he could violate the emoluments clause of the US Constitution, which is designed to limit foreign influence on federal officers.
(Painter was part of a lawsuit against Trump over the clause by the ethics watchdog organization CREW, which was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.)
Without more insight into his holdings, Painter said, it's impossible to know if Trump used a trade war with China as a chip in a fight over his personal business interests or dictated foreign policy in the Middle East to sweeten a deal between his golf courses and Saudi Arabia's investments in the sport.
"If a foreign government is sending money to Donald Trump to put his name on a hotel from a corporation controlled by, say, the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund, that's a violation of the emoluments clause," Painter said.
Trump's disclosures as a 2024 presidential candidate include his assets since November 2021, a year before he officially announced he was running for a second term.
That leaves a dark period between January and November of that year, where his holdings are unknown.
"If you had big infusions of cash coming in between January 2021 and November 2021, that might escape detection," Painter said.