A $2,000 Soccer Ball for Hamas-Friendly Qatar and a $1,500 Bowl for Xi: Biden Gave Lavish Gifts to Foreign Human Rights Abusers, Congressional Notice Shows
A $1,962 soccer ball for Hamas ally Qatar. A $1,557 bowl for Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping. A $2,310 handblown glass vase for Cambodian dictator Hun Sen. These are just some of the taxpayer-funded gifts the Biden-Harris administration awarded to foreign dictators, human rights abusers, and anti-American world leaders, financial disclosure forms reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.
The administration doled out the gifts from October 2022 to September 2023, as President Joe Biden and his top cabinet members traveled the globe for diplomatic powwows. While it is customary for U.S. officials to present foreign leaders with gifts as a sign of goodwill, the Biden-Harris administration spent liberally on presents for some of the globe’s foremost human rights abusers.
China’s Xi, for instance, received a $1,557.84 "custom glass bowl" during Biden’s travel in November 2022, according to non-public financial disclosure forms submitted to Congress this month and reviewed by the Free Beacon. The lavish bowl was packaged in a "Navy gift box" and included "hand-painted White House wood."
When Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to China in June 2023, he presented then-foreign affairs minister Qin Gang with a pewter tea set worth $1,345. The State Department sought special permission to purchase the gift because it exceeded the internal limit of $1,200 set under federal guidelines.
During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, meanwhile, Biden presented the gulf state's emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, with a $1,962 "custom leather presidential soccer ball." The souvenir included the "seal and signature of the president of the United States" and was bestowed in a "custom leather presentation box with inscription."
Biden presented Al-Thani with the ball as Qatar faced enormous international pressure over mass human rights abuses in the lead up to World Cup games, which took place in stadiums built largely using forced labor from foreign workers. Qatar also remains one of Hamas’s top backers, supporting the terror group financially and providing its remaining leaders safe haven in Doha.
Jordan’s anti-Israel regime, led by King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, received upwards of $10,000 in gifts during multiple visits with Biden and his wife Jill.
During his February 2023 visit to the United States, for example, the administration gifted Al-Hussein a "ship’s bell double clock" that featured "the president’s signature" and was valued at $1,912. He also received a $1,129 "custom handblown green glass bowl."
The administration presented Al-Hussein’s wife, Queen Rania Al Abdullah, with a "custom handmade 14 karat yellow gold brooch" worth $854. First Lady Jill Biden presented the gift in a "blue lacquer jewelry box" that featured "the first lady’s signature."
In May 2023, during a trip to Jordan, Biden presented Al-Hussein with a $2,236 "custom leather stationery set" that included a "custom hand-painted fountain pen made from White House wood." On that same foreign jaunt, Jill Biden gave Jordan’s queen an "18 karat yellow gold diamond necklace" priced at $2,400.
Cambodian dictator Sen, who served as the nation's prime minister until August 2023, received a $2,310 glass vase from Biden in November 2022. Around that time, Biden's State Department determined Sen's government was guilty of mass human rights crimes, including "unlawful or arbitrary killings" of political opponents.
A month later, during the 2022 U.S.-Africa Leader Summit in Washington, D.C., Biden gave South Sudan’s minister of foreign affairs, Mayiik Ayii Deng, a $1,936 gift package that included "framed vintage American art" and other valuables. South Sudan is complicit in massive human rights atrocities that include "extrajudicial executions, unlawful killings, [and] conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence," according to Amnesty International.
Prominent anti-Israel leaders also received luxury gifts.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union Commission, received "framed vintage American art" and a "pair of aviator sunglasses" valued at nearly $2,000. As the African Union’s top official, Mahamat has described Israel’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah as "immoral and unacceptable," saying the Jewish state is waging an "unjust war against Palestinians."
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan—a prominent anti-Israel figure who is said to have "set back Turkey’s human rights record by decades"—received a $1,078 "men’s presidential watch" in July 2023, when Biden was in Lithuania for NATO meetings. Erdogan’s gift also included a "pair of aviator sunglasses featuring the seal of the president of the United States."
Far-left Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who landed in hot water earlier this year for making a series of anti-Semitic remarks, received more than $3,000 in gifts from the Biden-Harris administration after taking office.
Lula was given a "steel democracy eagle sculpture" worth $1,123 in January, when a White House delegation attended his inauguration. He got a $2,000 "archivally printed peace treaty from the U.S. National Archives" in February of that year when he travelled to Washington for meetings.
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