The payment by Base Group, the parent of Korea Aluminium, surfaced for the first time in Trump's annual financial disclosure released in late June. The filing described it tersely as a "nonrefundable development fee" tied to a "letter of intent," offering no further detail.
In statements to the Times, Base Group and the Trump family said the money related to an as-yet-unannounced golf course project in South Korea, and denied any link to the trade case. The Times said it found no evidence that Trump or his relatives had lobbied U.S. officials on the company's behalf.
The disclosure lands at an awkward moment.
Korea Aluminium has curbed shipments to the United States since the Commerce Department concluded in 2023 that a group of South Korean firms circumvented duties on Chinese-made aluminum by routing lightly processed metal through Korea.
Base Group has courted the Trump family for nearly a decade, holding exclusive rights to sell Trump-branded wine in South Korea. In February, chairman Kim Sung-jip hosted Eric Trump in Seoul for meetings that drew executives from firms including SK Networks and Hana Bank.
"Any suggestion that this transaction was driven by anything other than legitimate business considerations is pure fiction," Alan Garten, chief legal officer of the Trump Organization, said in a statement, adding that the payment had nothing to do with the trade dispute.
The Base Group sum is a sliver of at least $125 million that Trump's holding company collected last year directly from foreign sources across more than a dozen countries.
The White House and the Commerce Department both said the review of Korea Aluminium had not been swayed by political pressure, calling the agency's trade proceedings quasi-judicial and apolitical. A preliminary review released this month sided with U.S. producers and floated higher tariffs should the Korean firm ship Chinese-origin metal.
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