Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) was accused by former president Donald Trump of helping his “crazy” wife Elaine Chao “get wealthy on China.”
The former president said in a tweet on his social media platform TruthSocial that Mitch McConnell should focus more on aiding Republicans in winning elections rather than assisting his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, in making money in Communist China.
Why, Trump questioned, do Republican senators let a broken-down hack politician like Mitch McConnell to publicly criticize hard-working Republican candidates for the United States Senate? “This is such a betrayal of leadership and integrity. Instead of assisting his insane wife and family get wealthy in China, he need to devote more of his time (and resources) to aiding their election.”
Peter Schweizer, a senior contributor to Breitbart News, has long expressed concern about Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao’s connections to China. Schweizer said that the senator and his wife “enjoy some of the deepest and most lasting links to Beijing-linked organizations of anybody in Washington, D.C.” in his most recent blockbuster, Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win.”
The Foremost Group, the father’s shipping company, which “made the family’s riches by having a tight financial connection with China-owned enterprises like the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC),” is the source of the links to China.
“There is no question that the McConnell-Chao family business riches might be destroyed overnight if Beijing viewed his policy stances toward China with too much disapproval,” according to Schweizer.
In 2021, Schweizer said that Chao used her position as transportation secretary to support the promotion of a book her father had written. Schweizer made this claim in a statement to Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow.
According to Schweizer, “Chao was utilizing Department of Transportation, which is taxpayer-funded personnel, to sell his book.The main audience for this book was in China, where it was published.”
He said, “Her father had a book that was published in mainland China, kind of his life narrative. It’s often said that James Chao is from Taiwan. He was classmates with Jiang Zemin, a man who became the leader of China 20 or so years ago, and that’s really why he was so enthused about the Chinese government. He is truly from the mainland of China.”
Schweizer said that “this family is tightly connected to the Chinese government.” In reality, Angela Chao, her sister, is one of the few foreigners to have a board seat at the Bank of China, the largest and most significant bank in terms of Chinese economic statecraft.
