U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is again asking the Trump administration to explain what happened to a diamond ring custom-made for President Trump and presented to the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, with Warren’s inquiry implying the gift may have represented a quid pro quo offering in a deal to avoid tariffs.
The Antwerp World Diamond Centre — a public-private entity that coordinates the Belgian diamond industry — gave the ring to Ambassador Bill White in June. About a month later, the Trump administration reversed new tariffs on Europe’s diamonds (not including lab-grown diamonds).
“In June, Belgium’s diamond industry gifted Trump an 18-karat gold ring encrusted with 321 diamonds and 75 gemstones,” Warren wrote. “A month later, European diamonds got an exemption from Trump’s tariffs.”
“We don’t know where the ring is today,” she added. “Where did it go? Did Trump keep it for himself?”
In June, Belgium’s diamond industry gifted Trump an 18-karat gold ring encrusted with 321 diamonds and 75 gemstones.
A month later, European diamonds got an exemption from Trump’s tariffs.
We don’t know where the ring is today.
Where did it go? Did Trump keep it for himself?
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) October 6, 2026
The ring features two diamond-studded T’s, an American flag, the numbers 45 and 47 — Trump is the 45th and 47th U.S. president — and an eagle. Inside, it is engraved: “Crafted in Antwerp for Donald John Trump.”
Independent jewelers consulted by The Associated Press estimated its value at between $25,000 and $35,000.
On July 24, the administration exempted European natural diamonds from its new Section 301 tariffs, restoring tariff-free access to the U.S. market.
The White House said the exemption honored an earlier U.S.-European Union trade commitment and denied that the ring had won the industry special treatment. The Antwerp World Diamond Centre also said there was no connection between the ring and the tariff change.
“The discussion about U.S. import tariffs was entirely separate from the gifted ring,” the group said, explaining that the ring had been created for a U.S. Embassy celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. “Without that celebration, there would have been no ring,” it explained, despite the ring’s inscription and decorative features emphasizing Trump, not the U.S. birthday.
[NOTE: The White House told Reuters in August that the ring was federal property and that Trump would have to pay its market value if he wanted to keep it.]
Warren and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter in August questioning the Antwerp World Diamond Centre and David Gotlib Luxury Cufflinks and warning that the ring, “at its worst,” could signal that industries were seeking to “buy lucrative tariff exemptions simply by showering President Trump with shiny gifts.”
Warren and Blumenthal are now asking the administration to provide the ring’s complete chain of custody, and — specifically — whether it ended up as Trump’s personal possession.
[NOTE: In a follow-up letter dated October 5, the senators ask the White House Gift Office, GSA and National Archives where the ring is physically located, whether it was classified as a personal gift to Trump or a gift to the United States, and whether it was transferred to a federal agency.]
“The circumstances in which AWDC gifted this ring, and the lack of clarity about its disposition, raise significant questions about whether the President has in fact accepted the ring as part of a quid pro quo agreement to reduce diamond tariffs,” Warren and Blumenthal wrote.