HRES 1186

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 16, 2026

Mr. Raskin (for himself, Ms. Balint, Mr. Boyle of Pennsylvania, Mr. Castro of Texas, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Correa, Ms. Crockett, Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, Ms. Dexter, Mr. Garamendi, Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Lieu, Ms. Lofgren, Mrs. McBath, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Mfume, Mr. Min, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Neguse, Ms. Norton, Ms. Pingree, Ms. Ross, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Tlaib, and Mrs. Watson Coleman) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that President Donald Trump, his Special Envoy Steven Witkoff, and all Federal officials must comply with the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by immediately turning over to the Department of the Treasury any payments received from the United Arab Emirates or any other foreign state and divest from all business interests linked to foreign governments.

Whereas article I, section 9, clause 8 of the United States Constitution (known as the “Foreign Emoluments Clause”) provides that “[N]o Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State”; Whereas the Office of the President of the United States is an “Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States]” and Steven Witkoff, as United States Special Envoy to the Middle East also holds an “Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States]”; Whereas the purpose of the Foreign Emoluments Clause is to guarantee that our Government officials will have an undivided fiduciary allegiance to the American people and no foreign powers; Whereas George Washington, in his 1796 farewell address to the Nation, restated the Framers’ organizing axiom of complete personal and financial loyalty to the American Nation for all American public servants when he warned, “Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence...the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”; Whereas President Trump has previously admitted that his foreign business interests presented a “little conflict of interest”; Whereas, on September 16, 2024, during the 2024 Presidential campaign, Donald Trump and Steven Witkoff launched World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency platform; Whereas Donald Trump and Steven Witkoff are still listed under the corporate leadership of World Liberty Financial as “Co-Founders Emeritus” along with their children Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Barron Trump, Zach Witkoff, and Alex Witkoff, several of whom serve as company officers; Whereas, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, 4 days before President Trump was sworn into office, Eric Trump signed a secret deal with an investment firm owned, in part, by the United Arab Emirates, directly selling the firm a nearly 50-percent stake in World Liberty Financial in exchange for a payment of $500,000,000 to be paid over a period of months extending into President Trump’s term of office; Whereas this $500,000,000 deal was funded, in substantial part, by “spy sheikh” Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is a member of one of the United Arab Emirates royal families and serves as both Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates National Security Advisor, and is also the leader of MGX Fund Management Limited, the largest sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates; Whereas the $500,000,000 payment was funneled through apparent shell entities intended to mask the central involvement of Sheikh Tahnoon; Whereas the payment of any portion of the $500,000,000 to President Trump after he entered office on January 20, 2025, or to Steven Witkoff after he was appointed a Special Envoy, would plainly constitute a forbidden emolument within the meaning of the Foreign Emoluments Clause and any payment of any portion in expectation of favors from a prospective Trump Presidency would also come under the constitutional prohibition; Whereas the United Arab Emirates, at Sheikh Tahnoon’s initiative, has sought to become a leader in artificial intelligence, and is actively seeking to obtain access to semiconductor chips made in the United States; Whereas, following this secret deal, and despite significant bipartisan concerns that advanced artificial intelligence-related technology might fall into the hands of the Chinese Government through its ties to the United Arab Emirates, the Trump administration has taken a series of steps that have advanced the objective of the United Arab Emirates of receiving semiconductor chips in the United States, while the Trump and Witkoff families have collected giant monetary payments to themselves, through World Liberty Financial, from Shiekh Tahnoon’s business interests; Whereas, on President Trump’s first day in office of his second term and 5 days after the secret deal was entered into with World Liberty Financial, the President announced plans for a $500,000,000,000, artificial intelligence-focused data center venture in which Shiekh Tahnoon’s MGX Fund was named as an investor; Whereas, on May 15, 2025, the Trump administration committed to providing annually around 500,000 of the most advanced American semiconductor chips to the United Arab Emirates, with approximately one-fifth of those chips going to an entity controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon; Whereas, as a result of the secret deal to sell an ownership stake in World Liberty Financial to investment funds backed by Sheikh Tahnoon, separate entities owned by the Trump and Witkoff families received immediate payoffs of $187,000,000 and $31,000,000, respectively; Whereas, following this secret deal, on November 19, 2025, the Department of Commerce authorized the export of 35,000 advanced American semiconductor chips to an entity controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon; Whereas President Trump and Special Envoy Witkoff accepted a foreign emolument without the consent of Congress as required by the Constitution; Whereas the terms, timing, and astonishing size of the investment create the inescapable inference that the United States Government took extraordinarily swift actions to grant companies in the United Arab Emirates access to semiconductor chips because of President Trump’s personal business dealings with investment entities financially backed by Sheikh Tahnoon; Whereas President Trump’s acceptance of foreign emoluments through his business relationships with investment funds financially backed by a member of the Government of the United Arab Emirates presents an egregious conflict of interest and grave risks to the national security of the United States, precisely the kind our Framers worked to avoid by building the Foreign Emoluments Clause into the Constitution; and Whereas neither President Trump nor Special Envoy Witkoff has sought, much less received, the constitutionally required permission from Congress to accept these massive foreign emoluments: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that President Trump, Special Envoy Witkoff, and all Federal officials must comply with the Foreign Emoluments Clause by immediately turning over to the Department of the Treasury any payments received directly or indirectly from the United Arab Emirates, their leadership, or any member of their royal families, or any other foreign state, and divest from all business interests with ties to foreign governments, including MGX Fund and any other investment fund or business entity linked to Sheikh Tahnoon or other officials of the Government of the United Arab Emirates. <all>