Financial disclosure forms reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon reveal that President Biden awarded “foreign dictators, human rights abusers, and anti-American world leaders” very generous gifts including a nearly $2,000 soccer ball to Hamas-friendly Qatar and a $2,300 handblown glass vase to Cambodian dictator Hun Sen during the administration’s travels. While it is customary for United States officials to give foreign leaders gifts to show goodwill, the Biden administration spent far more money than one might expect, especially when considering the recipients who knowingly stomp on human rights.
Considering the fact that President Biden facilitated four years of economic decline and Vice President Kamala Harris ended up with at least $20 million in debt after blowing through more than $1 billion in just 15 weeks for her failed presidential campaign, it should come as no surprise that the gifts the Biden administration gave around the globe were excessive.
According to the Free Beacon’s analysis of the records, overspending was an issue even at the level of simple gift-giving. The gift of a pewter tea set worth $1,345 given in 2023 to China’s then-foreign affairs minister Qin Gang needed special permission for purchase because it exceeded the internal limit of $1,200 that is set under federal guidelines.
In addition to the cost of the lavish gifts themselves, the people who received them makes them more problematic. During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Biden gifted the nearly $2,000 “custom leather presidential soccer ball” to Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani while Qatar was facing international pressure for human rights abuses. Qatar is also known to support Hamas both financially and with a safe haven, according to the Free Beacon.
Anti-Israel leaders who received lavish gifts from the Biden administration include Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union Commission, who received gifts valued at nearly $2,000, and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan who received a gift worth $1,000. Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has reportedly made anti-Semitic remarks, was given more than $3,000 in gifts from the Biden administration.
Cambodian dictator Sen received a $2,310 glass vase from Biden around the same time the Biden administration determined that the dictator’s regime was “guilty of mass human rights crimes, including ‘unlawful or arbitrary killings’ of political opponents.”
Although it is traditional for United States officials to deliver gifts to foreign leaders, the price tag might be a little too high for comfort when considering the human rights abuses by some of the recipients who were given luxurious gifts courtesy of American taxpayers.
