President Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton received $115,000 last year to participate in two panel discussions for Ukrainian steel magnate Victor Pinchuk’s foundation, The Washington Post reported.
Bolton’s appearances at events in Kiev and Munich were paid for by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, according to a financial disclosure form released by the White House on Monday, the newspaper reported.
In the panel discussions held in Kiev last September, Bolton told the audience that Trump would not make radical changes to the United States’s foreign policy.
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“The notion that [Trump’s election] is going to represent a dramatic break in foreign policy is just wrong,” Bolton said then, according to the newspaper. “Calm down, for God’s sake.”
Pinchuk’s spokeswoman said Bolton was recruited for the panel because they wanted to get “the best speakers who represent different points of view from the political spectrum of their countries,” the Post reported.
The Kiev event sponsored by Pinchuk netted Bolton his largest single payment for a speaking engagement in 2017, according to The Post, which reported that Bolton made $747,000 in speaking fees and $2.2 million in total income last year.
The Ukrainian magnate has made efforts to forge closer ties between Ukraine, the U.S. and Western Europe, and has also donated money to charities and American politicians.
Pinchuk’s foundation gave $10 million to the Clinton Foundation and in 2015 — when Trump was leading the Republican presidential contest — gave $150,000 to Trump’s personal charity in exchange for a 20-minute video message from Trump to the Yalta European Strategy group’s 2015 meeting.
Bolton also got paid $72,000 by Deutsche Bank and $46,500 by the British bank HSBC to speak at their events, the Post reported, citing the financial disclosures.