WASHINGTON — Businesses tied to Republican former US President Donald Trump received at least $7.8 million in foreign payments from 20 countries, including the Philippines, during his four years in the White House, Democratic congressional investigators said Thursday.

House Oversight Committee Democrats said those payments detailed in a 156-page report are likely a fraction of the foreign payments made to Trump and his family during his 2017-2021 administration.

"These countries spent — often lavishly — on apartments and hotel stays at Donald Trump's properties — personally enriching President Trump while he made foreign policy decisions connected to their policy agendas with far-reaching ramifications for the United States," the report said.

The countries included China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

TRUMP, DUTERTE

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The report said that in June 2018, while then President Rodrigo Duterte was seeking a free trade deal with the US, the Philippine Embassy in Washington paid nearly $75,000 to hold a Philippine Independence Day celebration at the Trump International Hotel.

"At the time, then-President Trump showed his eagerness to foster a friendly relationship with the then-President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. President Trump repeatedly praised Duterte, even as the authoritarian ruler was accused of orchestrating the extrajudicial killings of thousands of Filipino citizens," the report said.

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel "Babe" Romualdez told ABS-CBN News that he had addressed the matter back in 2018 and had no further comment.

In a June 2018 interview with ABS-CBN News, Romualdez said, "We decided to have it here... It’s an honor for us to hold it here."

"It may sound like a political statement, but maybe it is. It’s being held at a Trump Hotel, with the US President happens to have the same name as this hotel," he added.

Concerned Filipino-Americans back then took to the streets of Washington to protest alleged killings in the US and what they described as lavish use of Filipino taxpayers' money.

"I think it's very extravagant celebration to try to curry favor with President Trump or the United States... So it's really ostentatious and you know, they should be held to account. We have to find out what the Philippine government, the ambassador is spending for this blowout here," said Eric Lachica of the US Filipinos for Good Governance.

Romualdez at that time said "extravagance is really...a matter of interpretation."

"For us, this is is not extravagant because first of all, the Philippines is not -- the Philippine government is not spending for this affair. This is donated by many of our friends, my personal friends and friends of ours, friends of the Philippines who contributed to make this event happen here," the ambassador said.

Asked to clarify if the event was sponsored by the private sector, he said, "Yes, it is, a hundred percent."

Government spending for the event was limited "probably [to] the ingredients for the sisig," he added.

Romualdez later announced that the Philippines would begin negotiating a proposed free trade deal with the United States in September 2018, which he said could take years to complete.

• Philippines, US to start free trade talks in September

The Trump Administration ultimately did not enter into a free trade agreement with the Philippines, the congressional report noted.

• 'Traditional' free trade agreements not in the works - US

US CONSTITUTION'S EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE

Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump, a businessman before his election, broke with US precedent and did not divest from his businesses or put them into a blind trust when he took office, instead leaving his adult sons to manage them.

Shortly after Trump was elected to the presidency in 2016, Congress began probing conflicts of interests and Trump's potential violations of the emoluments clause of the US Constitution, which bars the acceptance of presents from foreign states by a person holding federal elected office without congressional consent.

The investigation led to a lengthy court dispute, which ended in a settlement in 2022, at which point Trump's accounting firm began producing the requested documents.

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When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives early last year, the committee stopped requiring Trump's accounting firm to produce documents and a US District Court ended the litigation.

The report discussed four properties, less than 1 percent of the 558 corporate entities Trump owned either directly or indirectly as president. Trump's accounting firm did not provide documents regarding at least 80 percent of Trump's business entities, congressional investigators said.

The report's release comes as Trump, 77, seeks to regain the presidency in the 2024 election. He is the leading candidate to secure the Republican nomination and is expected to face off against President Joe Biden, 81, in a rematch of the 2020 campaign.

House Republicans have mounted an impeachment inquiry against Biden mostly centered on his son, Hunter. Republicans allege that Biden and his family improperly profited from policy actions Biden participated in as vice president in 2009-17 and that the Justice Department interfered with an investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes for political purposes.

The White House has denied wrongdoing.

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(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski)