New Trump financial disclosure gives glimpse into pre-pandemic business income

Before the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the tourism and hospitality industries, President Donald Trump’s high-profile properties were humming along in 2019, according to an annual disclosure report released late Friday evening.

Trump National Doral Miami, the golf resort where the president had considered hosting this year’s G-7 gathering of world leaders before scrapping the plans, brought in the most money in 2019. It reported revenues of $77.2 million compared with nearly $76 million in 2018.

One of president’s other golf clubs in Bedminster, N.J., a frequent retreat for Trump during the summer, reported a nearly 13 percent increase in revenue in 2019. Other golf resorts owned by Trump, including in Jupiter, Fla. and Charlotte, N.C., saw their revenues rise as well last year.

The Trump International Hotel in Washington, which has become a prime meeting spot for administration officials and a source of controversy since opening in 2016, reported $40.5 million in revenue compared with the previous year’s income of $40.8 million.

However, revenues at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort Trump has frequented during the course of his presidency, dipped to $21.4 million in 2019, a drop of more than $1 million — or 5 percent — from $22.6 million in the previous year.

The disclosure indicates that Trump had a minimum income of more than $440 million.

The 78-page report, which is required to be reported every year under federal ethics rules, provides a glimpse into the president’s debts and how his properties are performing. Because the disclosure is for income generated in the previous year, it does not show the coronavirus’ impact on Trump’s properties and investments.

Trump's properties have not escaped the pandemic's deleterious effects, with many forced to close temporarily and lay off workers.

The disclosure was originally due in May, but the White House received two 45-day extensions as Trump addressed the coronavirus crisis. A White House memorandum released in April stated that there was “good cause” to grant the extension.

Ethics officials and watchdog groups have long raised concerns that Trump is profiting from his role as commander in chief.

The president, unlike his predecessors, has refused to release his tax returns, often claiming that he’s under audit. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court delivered a split-decision on Trump’s personal financial records, blocking congressional investigators from accessing the tax documents but rejecting his claim of “absolute” immunity.

Disclosures for Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka and Jared Kushner, were also released Friday, showing the White House advisers reported at least $36 million in income.

Anita Kumar contributed to this report.

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Trump plans to ban TikTok in the U.S.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he plans to bar the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from operating in the United States, a move that comes as officials across Washington accuse the company of posing a national security risk.

“As far as TikTok is concerned we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters traveling with him from Tampa aboard Air Force One. He said he could take action against the company as soon as Saturday.

TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has come under fire from lawmakers and government officials on both sides of the aisle over fears that it could turn over American users' information to the Chinese government. TikTok says it has not provided consumers’ personal information to Beijing and would not do so.

The president said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to ban TikTok in the United States.

“Well, I have that authority. I can do it with an executive order or that,” Trump said, referring to emergency economic powers.

Trump made clear he was not in favor of a deal to let a U.S. company buy TikTok’s American operations, following reports that Microsoft is in talks to do just that.

An administration official said earlier Friday that the administration would force ByteDance to divest ownership of TikTok through a ruling by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed earlier this week that TikTok has been under review by the inter-agency body, which evaluates whether foreign investments pose security risks. ByteDance acquired TikTok's precursor, Musical.ly, in 2017.

Mnuchin said Wednesday that he expected CFIUS to make a recommendation for action on TikTok this week.

After reports of a planned administration action against the company surfaced earlier Friday, TikTok spokesperson Jamie Favazza said in a statement, "While we do not comment on rumors or speculation, we are confident in the long-term success of TikTok. Hundreds of millions of people come to TikTok for entertainment and connection, including our community of creators and artists who are building livelihoods from the platform."

Fox Business and other news outlets reported that tech giant Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok, a move that would give the trillion dollar company a fresh footprint in the social media market. Microsoft declined comment on the reports.

The Trump administration plan to order ByteDance to sell off TikTok was previously reported by Bloomberg.

Cristiano Lima contributed to this report.

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Florida teen arrested, accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

Graham Clark is currently in jail and being charged as an adult with over 30 felony counts. 

A Florida teen has been arrested and accused of being the “mastermind” behind Twitter’s recent security and privacy breach. 

17-year-old Graham Clark of Tampa, Florida is said to have posed as a member of Twitter’s IT department and gained access to the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Apple, Uber and more. The hack was part of a massive bitcoin scam on July 15th, theGrio reported. 

Each of the hacked Twitter profiles sent out messages that included the same bitcoin account, and urged followers to send cryptocurrency on the promise to double any amount received. 

Read More: Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Uber and more hacked on Twitter

“Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time,” one of the tweets read. “You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000.”

Apparently, Clark didn’t act alone. 22-year-old Nima Fazeli in Orlando and 19-year-old Mason Sheppard in the UK have also been charged by the US Department of Justice, The Verge reports. The duo, who go by the hacker aliases “Rolex” and “Chaewon,” respectively, are in custody, according to the FBI. 

Chaewon allegedly conspired with an unidentified minor in California, who confessed to helping sell access to Twitter accounts.

According to an affidavit released Friday, authorities say Clark convinced a Twitter employee that he worked in the IT department and that’s how he was able to gain credentials.

“Once we became aware of the incident, we immediately locked down the affected accounts and removed Tweets posted by the attackers,” Twitter said in a statement. “We have locked accounts that were compromised and will restore access to the original account owner only when we are certain we can do so securely.”

Clark is currently in jail and being charged as an adult with over 30 felony counts, including organized fraud, communications fraud, identity theft, and hacking, 

Read More: Twitter was hacked and now some of its most prominent users are caught in a Bitcoin scam

Celebrities hacked on Twitter (via Twitter.com)

Fazeli is facing five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for computer intrusion. Sheppard is facing a 20-year sentence and a $250,000 fine in the US for computer intrusion, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy, the report states. 

“This could have had a massive, massive amount of money stolen from people, it could have destabilized financial markets within America and across the globe; because he had access to powerful politicians’ Twitter accounts, he could have undermined politics as well as international diplomacy,” said Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren.

“This is not a game… these are serious crimes with serious consequences, and if you think you can rip people off online and get away with it, you’ll be in for a rude awakening, a rude awakening that comes in the form of a 6 AM knock on your door from federal agents,” he added. 

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