Following Trump’s Disclosure of $2 Million Payment From Base Group, Wyden Seeks Answers From Commerce Department on Company’s Relationship with Trump
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today called on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to release information on the administration’s relationship with the Korean company Base Group, amidst an ongoing trade investigation involving its subsidiary, Korea Aluminium. Trump’s annual financial disclosure, released in June 2026, revealed that Base Group made a $2 million payment last year to the President’s holding company.
This $2 million payment—described as a “nonrefundable development fee” tied to an unannounced golf course project—occurred while Commerce Department trade actions on Korean aluminum imports were ongoing. The department has imposed, and is currently reviewing, duties on aluminum foil imports from Korea Aluminium, which the department had determined to be Chinese-origin products shipped through Korea to circumvent antidumping duty orders. Korea Aluminium has challenged the Commerce Department’s determination.
“The circumstances surrounding Korea Aluminium’s trade dispute and its parent company’s financial relationship with the President raise significant concerns,” Wyden wrote in his letter to Secretary Lutnick. “The American public and U.S. businesses rely on the government to pursue trade policy in the public interest, rather than in the President’s personal financial interest.”
Base Group has spent nearly a decade cultivating a relationship with the Trump family, exclusively selling Trump-branded wine in South Korea and hosting Eric Trump at its Seoul headquarters in February 2026 to discuss ways to increase bilateral trade. This is just one example of Trump’s direct financial entanglements with foreign entities impacted by his administration’s trade policies, raising broader concerns of administration-wide pay-to-play corruption.
Wyden is demanding answers from Secretary Lutnick regarding administration officials’ interactions and relationships with Korea Aluminium and Base Group, as well as any officials’ knowledge of the $2 million payment to Trump, by September 1, 2026.
The text of this letter is here.
A web version of this release is here.