A former White House ethics adviser says gold gifted to Donald Trump during tariff negotiations gave “the appearance of a bribe.”
Richard Painter, 64, who served as George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer, told the Daily Beast he believes lawmakers should be asking questions about the lavish gifts. The gold Rolex desk clock and a one-kilogram gold bar were given to Trump by a Swiss business consortium a week before he issued a favorable tariff cut for the country and then displayed on his desk in the Oval Office. That should all trigger a congressional investigation, according to Painter.
“It just gives the appearance of a bribe,” Painter said, adding, “I’m not saying it is a bribe…[but] to avoid the appearance of bribery and corruption, presidents almost always refuse…gifts.”
Trump, 79, hosted a delegation of business leaders on Nov. 4 and received the clock and the bar, which was later valued at roughly $130,000.
Under federal practice, high-value gifts presented because of a president’s official position are typically treated as U.S. government property and disclosed publicly. While the president is not bound by the sub-$20 gift cap that constrains most federal employees, Painter noted that he remains subject to criminal bribery law—and to impeachment for “bribery” under the Constitution.
Painter served as associate counsel to the president and chief White House ethics lawyer under Bush from February 2005 to July 2007, advising the president, vice president, senior staff, and nominees on conflicts of interest, disclosures, and ethics compliance. He has since held leadership roles in government-ethics reform.
His remarks come as America’s government ethics watchdog told the Beast it has no paperwork showing any review of the haul. This led Painter to urge congressional scrutiny—but he conceded that the “highly partisan” nature of Capitol Hill made such action unlikely until Democrats wrest back control, possibly at next year’s midterms.
“We’re not there yet,” he said, “but…receiving gifts from business people impacted by tariffs at the same time as making decisions on tariffs is a red flag, and ordinarily, I think, would trigger an investigation in the House and the Senate.”
In Switzerland, lawmakers Raphaël Mahaim and Greta Gysin have pressed prosecutors to assess whether giving luxury items to a U.S. president during a sensitive trade moment violated their criminal code on offering an “undue advantage” to a foreign public official.
Prosecutors there confirmed to the Beast on Nov. 27 that they had received multiple criminal complaints “against persons unknown” over the meeting and are reviewing them before deciding whether to open a full investigation.
A person close to the delegation later told the Beast the items had been presented “to the Presidential Library… in full compliance with both U.S. and Swiss law, and were cleared with the White House ethics counsel.”
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Beast, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) said it had “searched and has not located any records” tied to the Nov. 4 Oval Office meeting or the gifts.
While administrations are not legally required to consult OGE on every gift, experts say the body is commonly consulted when high-value items from interested parties could be seen as influence-seeking.
Painter drew a distinction between the White House Counsel’s Office—which can advise internally—and OGE, which issues government-wide standards and guidance. He acknowledged that OGE’s “no records” letter does not mean the White House failed to review the matter, and that the administration’s lawyers may have given advice without consulting the body.
But Painter said the optics already undercut confidence and that the better practice would have been to refuse the gifts outright or immediately transfer them to the U.S. government—“which is not the Presidential Library”—and have them instead “displayed in the Smithsonian,” or similar.
The controversy comes amid Trump’s aggressive tariff agenda and business dealings by the Trump family business in the Middle East that critics say raise conflict-of-interest concerns. Painter argued that, taken together, the gifts, tariff leverage, and family-linked ventures all push the United States toward a system the nation’s founders sought to prevent.
“It’s transactional, [in] the way oligarchies operate,” he said, calling the dynamic “very Russian…the way oligarchs and monarchs have behaved.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, the OGE, Raphaël Mahaim, Greta Gysin, and the member organizations of the Swiss delegation for comment. A spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) declined to comment.
