FOREIGN DIGNITARIES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Before President Donald Trump’s relationship with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went south, the northern neighbor presented him with a statue of a ‘male lion’ carved from Ohio sandstone worth $450. And before Trump’s administration escalated trade tensions with Beijing by imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave Trump a paper panel with five columns of calligraphy, valued at $14,400. The artwork is among more than 80 gifts delivered to Trump and members of his family by foreign leaders during the president’s first year in office and disclosed Wednesday in an annual State Department report. The gifts, valued at more than $140,000 in all, are turned over to the National Archives or other government agencies. They include a portrait of a smiling Trump, sporting a red necktie, painted on mother-of-pearl panels from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas; a $935 fountain pen from Germany’s Angela Merkel; and a map of the United States by 18th century French geographer Louis Brion de la Tour from French President Emmanuel Macron. The most expensive gift bestowed on the Trump family came from Xi, a dinnerware set that includes an image of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, worth $16,250. The two leaders met at the Florida property in 2017, and are expected to do so again in coming weeks to discuss a possible trade deal.”
–John Fritze, Gregory Korte and Maureen Groppe, “From chess sets to model jets, foreign leaders lavish gifts on Trump White House,” USA Today, March 7, 2019 12:15 pm