During the presidential debate Thursday, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden argued that their opponent accepted money from foreign sources. But only one candidate is actually known to have done that: Donald Trump.
While president, Trump has continued to own his business, and through his hotels, clubs, and golf courses he’s accepted millions of dollars in payment from foreign entities. Indeed, Trump made more than $200 million in income from his foreign business interests since 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Biden, meanwhile, insisted that “I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life” — and as far as we know, that’s correct. Biden has indeed released many years of his tax returns and financial disclosure forms, and as he said, they show no sign of any foreign money going to Joe Biden. (Trump famously has refused to release his tax returns, even though he promised he would back during the 2016 campaign — the New York Times recently disclosed some of them.)
Now, Joe’s son Hunter is a different story. Hunter Biden has in fact been paid millions of dollars from foreign sources. But on the debate stage, Trump repeatedly and misleadingly tried to conflate Hunter Biden’s money and Joe Biden’s money. Often Trump would insist to Biden that “you” got certain payments, before then clarifying he meant “your family.”
Trump’s campaign has been trying desperately to prove that some of Hunter’s money went to Joe — most recently by citing suddenly disclosed emails from or about Hunter — but so far, they have not proven their case. The only candidate known to be taking in lots of money from foreign sources is Donald Trump.
