{"id":32123,"date":"2026-08-11T22:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/32123\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T22:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:36:10","slug":"senators-accuse-trump-of-taking-cartoonish-bribe-a-321-diamond-ring-from-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/32123\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators Accuse Trump of Taking ‘Cartoonish Bribe’: A 321-Diamond Ring From Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of Democratic US senators has some questions for Belgium’s diamond industry after it gave President Donald Trump<\/a> what they said appears to be a “cartoonish bribe.”<\/p>\n

On Monday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren<\/a> (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter<\/a> inquiring about a “watch-sized, 18-karat gold ring encrusted with 321 diamonds and 75 gemstones” that the president had been gifted in late June by the Antwerp World Diamond Center (AWDC), a lobbying group for Belgian diamondmakers.<\/p>\n

The custom ring, emblazoned with a gem-encrusted presidential seal, diamond emblems with the initial “T,” and an interior engraving that reads “Crafted in Antwerp for Donald John Trump,” is estimated<\/a> to be worth $25,000-35,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cA very special thank you to my friends from Antwerp for the magnificent Freedom 250 ring,\u201d Trump said in a video message during an event in Brussels upon receiving the gift at an event commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just weeks later, the administration announced it was exempting European diamonds from Trump’s sweeping tariff regime, which he was attempting to reinstate after the US Supreme Court<\/a> had struck it down earlier this year.<\/p>\n

After the diamond tariffs<\/a> had been lifted, a press release from AWDC celebrated the decision, calling it a \u201csignificant boost\u201d for Antwerp’s diamond industry and \u201cits international competitive position.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the company, Antwerp exports<\/a> about $2 billion worth of diamonds to the US each year. At 10%, that means importers would avoid paying about $200 million in tariffs annually under the exemption.<\/p>\n

The senators noted that Isidore M\u00f6rsel, the president of the World Diamond Center, “explicitly linked the gift to trade<\/a> issues” when presenting it to the US Ambassador to Belgium<\/a>, Bill White, for delivery to Trump.<\/p>\n

M\u00f6rsel said that AWDC commissioned the ring to “celebrate that enduring relationship” with the Antwerp diamond sector\u2019s “most important trading partner for generations.”<\/p>\n

The senators said AWDC’s public-private partnership with the Belgian government meant that Trump might be required to give up the ring under the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution<\/a>, which forbids federal officers from receiving gifts from foreign states without Congress’ consent.<\/p>\n

However, they said “presenting a gift of this magnitude could still play directly into President Trump\u2019s well-established affinity for shiny gifts.”<\/p>\n

White House<\/a> spokesperson Kush Desai has denied that the gift had any influence over Trump’s decision, telling MS NOW<\/a> that the administration “agreed to provide preferential tariff treatment for diamonds as part of our historic trade deal with the European Union<\/a> that was signed last summer.”<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cthe only special interest guiding the Trump administration\u2019s decision-making is the best interest of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the senators said the gift to Trump “fit seamlessly into [the] pattern” of executives appearing to use gifts and flattery to obtain lucrative tariff exemptions.<\/p>\n

Apple<\/a> CEO Tim Cook, who donated<\/a> $1 million to the president\u2019s inauguration committee, appeared to leverage his \u201cvery good relationship\u201d with the President and a well-timed \u201c24-karat\u201d gold gift to secure exemptions from tariffs for various Apple products imported from China. <\/p>\n

After Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang purchased<\/a> a seat at President Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago table for $1 million, the administration reversed course on implementing rules that would have prevented Nvidia from selling its most advanced chips to China. <\/p>\n

And the administration slashed tariffs on Swiss imports from 39% to 15% just days after Swiss executives\u2014including Rolex CEO Jean-Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Dufour\u2014presented<\/a> President Trump with a personalized gold bar worth more than $130,000 and a luxury Rolex desk clock.<\/p>\n

The senators said Antwerp’s gift “raise[d] serious legal questions” under federal bribery law. They asked M\u00f6rsel and the jeweler who made the ring, David Gotlib, to provide details about the gift, including who funded it. They also requested information about any contact between the diamond lobbyists and White or other administration officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of Democratic US senators has some questions for Belgium’s diamond industry after it gave President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,17433,1288,381,17431,17432,258],"class_list":["post-32123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-bribery","tag-corruption","tag-donald-trump","tag-elizabeth-warren","tag-richard-blumenthal","tag-tariffs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117079270196688065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}