Last month, the head of Belgium’s diamond industry presented President Donald Trump with a gift: a specially-made 18-karat gold ring worth an estimated $25,000 that celebrated Trump’s two terms in office.
Four weeks later, his administration approved a tariff exemption worth billions of dollars to Belgium’s diamond industry.
The ring, which is the size of a watch, features 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds and six rubies. Its surface includes a gem-encrusted presidential seal and its sides feature diamond-encrusted “T” emblems and the numbers 45 and 47 rendered in a Superman-style logo — a nod to Trump’s two terms in office.
Two independent jewelers estimated the ring’s value at between $25,000 and $35,000, according to The Associated Press.
Democrats in Congress say the ring “appears to be a cartoonish bribe.” In a letter to the Belgian diamond industry’s primary trade organization and the jeweler who designed the ring, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., warned that those responsible could face criminal penalties under U.S. federal bribery law.
“We have previously raised concerns about the President’s record of doling out special treatment to CEOs who are able to woo him with flattery, payoffs, or both,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by MS NOW. “Your actions could also raise serious legal questions under federal criminal law.”
The Belgian diamond industry’s main lobbying organization, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment. The White House also did not respond to a request for comment.
In late June, Isidore Mörsel, president of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, presented Trump’s 18-karat gold ring to the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Bill White, at an America250 celebration in Brussels.
“A very special thank you to my friends from Antwerp for the magnificent Freedom 250 ring,” Trump said in a recorded video message played at the event, according to a video posted by the U.S. Embassy in Brussels.
Belgium exported $2.1 billion in polished diamonds to the U.S. in 2024. After Trump announced sweeping new tariffs in 2025, a monthslong fight erupted over U.S. tariffs on European diamonds.
Belgium’s diamond industry had won a full tariff exemption in September 2025, only to lose it in February 2026, when the Supreme Court struck down the legal basis for Trump’s original tariffs. The administration replaced the tariff with a 10% surcharge that hit European diamonds and other imports.
When the U.S. Trade Representative’s office published its proposed exemption list on June 5, diamonds were not on it.
On June 28, 2026, the Belgian diamond industry gave the Trump ring to the U.S. ambassador in Brussels. Four weeks later, on July 24, 2026, the Trump administration officially exempted European natural diamonds from the new tariffs.
The Belgian diamond industry attributed its win to economics, noting that no diamonds are mined or cut in the U.S. and arguing that no domestic industry in Belgium needs protection.
The group has said the country-specific exemptions were designed to encourage individual economies to enforce prohibitions on goods made with forced labor — the stated purpose of the broader tariff action.
But Sen. Warren and Sen. Blumenthal have questions about the timing of the gift and the subsequent exemption to tariffs that followed it.
Citing the federal bribery statute, the senators asked Mörsel and the jeweler, David Gotlib, in the letter for details about the gift: who conceived and approved it, how much it cost and whether it was funded by the AWDC, its member companies or outside donors.
The senators also requested a full accounting of any contact between the diamond group and Ambassador White or other administration officials regarding tariffs before July 24, including calls, texts and emails, along with names and dates.
They asked when the AWDC first learned that diamonds would be exempted and who in the administration told them. And they asked the group to calculate the exemption’s value to its members, along with total imports and tariffs paid during the six months the duty was in effect.
Sen. Warren and Sen. Blumenthal say the ring fits a pattern: Apple’s Tim Cook donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and gave him a 24-karat gold gift before Apple won China tariff exemptions; Nvidia’s Jensen Huang paid $1 million for a seat at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago table before the administration dropped rules barring Nvidia’s advanced chip sales to China; and Swiss executives, including Rolex CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour, gave Trump a $130,000 gold bar and a luxury desk clock days before Swiss tariffs fell from 39% to 15%.
The senators have given Mörsel and Gotlib until Aug. 21 to respond. If the Belgian tariff exemption holds, the senators said, it will mark the fourth instance this year of a foreign or corporate gift preceding a favorable tariff decision.
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