section_path: First presidency (2017–2021)/Conflicts of interest
section_name: Conflicts of interest
paragraph_text: Conflicts of interest
  
  Before being inaugurated, Trump moved his businesses into a revocable trust, rather than a blind trust or equivalent arrangement "to cleanly sever himself from his business interests". He continued to profit from his businesses and knew how his administration's policies affected them. Although he said he would eschew "new foreign deals", the Trump Organization pursued operational expansions in Scotland, Dubai, and the Dominican Republic. Lobbyists, foreign government officials, and Trump donors and allies generated hundreds of millions of dollars for his resorts and hotels. Trump was sued for violating the Domestic and Foreign Emoluments Clauses of the U.S. Constitution, the first time that the clauses had been substantively litigated. One case was dismissed in lower court. Two were dismissed by the Supreme Court as moot after his term.
  
  During the campaign, Trump had pledged to donate his presidential salary and profits from foreign patronage to the U.S. government. He donated his salary to federal agencies and publicized each donation until July 2020. Federal agencies surveyed by The Washington Post in July 2021 reported not having received any gifts after that month. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported in 2024 that he had donated $448,000 of an estimated $13.6 million in payments from foreign governments in his first term.