- The Saudi royal family gave President
Donald Trump robes made of fake cheetah and tiger fur in 2017. - The New York Times uncovered the robes as part of an investigation into foreign gifts.
The ultrawealthy Saudi royal family gave President Donald Trump and his team luxurious cheetah and tiger robes that federal inspectors later determined to be fake, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The Times uncovered the robes, which were among over 80 gifts the Saudis lavished on Trump during his first visit to the country in 2017, as part of an investigation into the Trump administration's practices of accepting and disclosing gifts from foreign leaders and nations.
Initially, The Times reported, White House lawyers said that if the fur were indeed real, the White House would risk violating the Endangered Species Act, an environmental-conservation law.
But instead of giving them up, the White House simply didn't disclose the robes and held on to them for almost four years, The Times said.
It wasn't until January 19, 2021, the last full day of Trump's presidency, that the White House handed the robes over to the General Services Administration.
The Times said that when it learned of the robes and asked the GSA about them, the agency alerted the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which took the robes from a Virginia warehouse for analysis over the summer.
Once the robes made their way to the proper agency for inspection, they were determined to be imitations, The Times reported, adding that it was unclear whether the Saudis were aware the fur was dyed.
"Wildlife inspectors and special agents determined the linings of the robes were dyed to mimic tiger and cheetah patterns and were not comprised of protected species," an Interior Department spokesman, Tyler Cherry, told The Times.
The inspectors also examined a dagger with what appeared to be an ivory handle that was also given to Trump during that 2017 visit. The Interior Department said the handle "appears to possibly contain tooth or bone of some variety" but couldn't immediately determine a species, the report said.
The Times found that the Saudi royals also gave Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and White House advisor who maintained a close relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, several items, including two swords and a dagger, valued at nearly $48,000. Kushner eventually paid the US government back for the items, the report said.
US officials told Politico in August that at least 20 kinds of gifts - making up an unknown number of items - had gone missing from the State Department's vault during the transition between administrations.
The department's inspector general continues to investigate some of those disappearances.
The watchdog is investigating a mysterious case of a missing $5,800 bottle of Japanese whiskey that was intended for Secretary of Mike Pompeo but that Pompeo says he never received, and whether Trump appointees stole gift bags intended for foreign leaders at the 2020 G7 summit, which was canceled over COVID-19, The Times reported.