Donald Trump Jr, the son of United States President Donald Trump and the Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, is expected to visit India at the end of February to formally launch the Trump Towers project at Gurugram and Kolkata. The real estate companies building the projects had earlier advertised that those buying an apartment in the Trump Towers will be able to meet Trump Jr.
“India is such an incredible country and our brand has enjoyed tremendous success in the region for many years,” Trump Jr said, according to the PTI. “This trip is a celebration of all we have achieved, including the launch of the Trump developments in Kolkata and Delhi which have been underway for many months. The teams in India have been working very hard to deliver residences that are truly second to none and I am looking forward to visiting these spectacular projects very soon.”
A full-page ad in the newspaper Hindustan Times on Feb. 17 said, “Trump has arrived. Have you?” The ad also says that those who buy a property in the Trump Towers before Feb. 21 will be able to meet Trump Jr for a conversation and dinner with him.
Trump Jr is also expected to attend the Global Business Summit in New Delhi during Feb 23-24, where senior Indian politicians are likely to be present.
In the United States, the promotional activity for the Trump Towers project has been called an ethics violation. Concerns have been raised over the business interests of the U.S. President clashing with his political ones.
Earlier, Pankaj Bansal, the owner of M3M India Ltd — one of the developers for the Gurugram property — had said that Trump Jr. would host the first 100 buyers in the United States. The two companies, M3M and Tribecca, reported bookings of sales worth over Rs 450 crore within the first 25 days of the soft launch.
Meanwhile, Norman Eisen, the co-chairman of CREW and a former Obama ethics adviser, said, “They are auctioning off access to the first family in a foreign land. What is to stop a foreign national with interests before the U.S. government from purchasing a flat, or tagging along with someone who did, simply to ask Don Junior to raise some issue or concern with his father?”
The Trump Organization’s business interests in India have already raised eyebrows. M3M was involved in a tax investigation in 2011, which was later resolved in their favor. The head of Tribecca Developers, Kalpesh Mehta, had visited Trump in November 2016 after his win, a trip that led to controversy.
“By continuing his association with these groups and pursuing his private business interests, he’s put himself on a collision course with the U.S. public interest,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor and ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, to Washington Post in June 2017. “It’s a terrible idea.”