Trump Seals Trade Deal After Getting Massive Gold Tchotchke
GOOD AS GOLD
Adam Downer
Breaking News Reporter
Updated Nov. 15 2025 4:08AM EST
Published Nov. 14 2025 12:32PM EST
President Donald Trump gave Switzerland a favorable tariff break one week after the country’s industry leaders buttered him up with priceless gold gifts.
U.S. trade representative Jamison Greer announced on CNBC’s Squawk Box Friday morning that the United States had reached a trade deal with Switzerland.
The Swiss government said on X that the deal cut its tariff rate from 39 percent to 15 percent, in line with the rates faced by other European countries. The relief is welcome for Switzerland, as the high tariff rate saw Swiss tech exports drop to the U.S. by 14.2 percent in Q3.
Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter, 61, previously tried to get Trump to change his mind, but an icy August phone conversation with Trump, 79, left trade talks between the two nations stuck in the mud. That was until an entourage of gift-bearing Swiss billionaires visited the White House last week.
The gifts of a clock and bar of gold have been sitting on the Oval Office desk since Nov. 4.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Rolex CEO Jean Frédéric Dufour, Johann Rupert from luxury goods maker Richemont, and Marwan Shakarchi from gold refining company MKS visited the White House on Nov. 4. After the meeting, Trump had a gold clock and a bar of gold on the Oval Office desk.
Watch-focused e-commerce site Hodinkee received a letter from Dufour confirming that Trump’s new clock was a gift from the Rolex company. Dufour, 57, wrote that the watch was one of several “symbolic gestures of appreciation reflecting the spirit of friendship and enduring ties between the two nations.”
Watch specialists Watches of Espionage and Niccoly identified the clock as a Rolex Datejust, and Hodinkee confirmed that it is not a commercially available model. The publication noted it resembles a Submariner Desk Clock, a $10,270 model made of stainless steel, though the version on Trump’s desk is made of gold.
Next to the clock sits a specially engraved gold bar from MKS, according to BBC reporting. The size and price of the gold bar have not been disclosed. The Daily Beast reached out to MKS for comment.
The gifts from with the three Swiss men seemed to impress Trump because after the meeting, talks accelerated and a deal was struck. The Swiss government celebrated the negotiations as a “great new dynamic in our bilateral relations.”
It is not uncommon for presidents to receive gifts from visitors, but they are treated as government property and handed to the National Archives after they leave office. If a president wants to keep a gift for themselves, they must pay federal taxes on it if the gift is not from a close relative.
Trump’s ties to Dufour have come under scrutiny before. On Sept. 7, the pair attended the U.S. Open Men’s Tennis Final together. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren accused Dufour of trying to suck up to Trump by inviting him to the match, and Dufour admitted that Trump jokingly wondered if he would have been invited if not for U.S. tariffs on Switzerland.
“President Trump, never one to miss a rhetorical opportunity, did ask in jest whether he would have been invited had it not been for the tariffs,” Dufour said. “A moment that brought a round of laughter all around and, as you can imagine, a swift return of attention to the unfolding excitement on court.”
Warren slammed the cozy relationship.
“Corruption is not a laughing matter,” she said. “While families are getting crushed by Trump’s chaotic tariffs, Donald Trump and his rich friends are laughing about tariffs in a fancy box sponsored by a luxury watch brand. How much more out of touch can Trump be?”
