Don’t tell Jill!
“Amtrak Joe” Biden gave away a custom-designed sterling-silver train set gifted to him by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of other presents world leaders lavished on him during his final year in office – but had a special place in his heart for Italian PM Giorgia Meloni’s gift.
It was a pair of $723 Buccellati cufflinks that Italy’s glamorous leader gave him in March 2024, records that the State Department quietly published Thursday reveal.
That was three months before Meloni, 49, guided Biden, 83, back to a group of world leaders after he wandered away from a photo-op during G7 summit meetings in Puglia, Italy.
Biden at first sounded unenthusiastic when Meloni came on the scene, issuing a vague warning after Italy’s far right party came to power in 2022.
But he soon warmed to her, and greeted her with kisses on both cheeks and grabbed her hand before awkwardly saluting her during a June 2024 visit to Italy.
The only other gift Biden disclosed keeping in the final report of his tenure was an aircraft fragment from the wreckage of an A-20 Havoc light bomber presented to him in 2023 by James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua, New Guinea.
Biden has long spoken in public about how his uncle, Army Air Forces Second Lt. Ambrose Finnegan Jr., died in a crash off the coast of New Guinea.
Biden caused a diplomatic flap in 2024 when he said, “They never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals for real in that part of New Guinea.”
Foreign leaders showered Biden with tchotchkes, including an ice cream scoop from the Sultan of Brunei, and a $7,089 bike from the president of the UAE. Biden sent both, plus the $7,750 train set, to the Archives.
Under the law, federal government officials can’t accept gifts or travel worth more than $480, although there’s an exception for situations where non-acceptance would cause “embarrassment” to the donor or the US.
Officials must pay for items they decide to keep, rather than sending them off to the National Archives like most of the trinkets that come the president’s way.
That appears to be what Jill Biden did when she accepted a $5,000 Dior bracelet from French first lady Brigitte Macron.
The former president evidently is “waiting to receive” a Notre Dame sculpture fragment presented to him in 2024 by French President Emmanuel Macron, who helped organize repairs after the devastating 2019 fire at the cathedral.
The first lady also kept a bottle of Ormonde Jayne Perfume presented by the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani and his wife Sheikha Fatima Bint Nasser Bin Hassan Al Thani.
She clung to another royal gift, a vase presented by the Catherine, the Princess of Wales. The vase, two books, and a basket were valued at $567.00 in 2021, but only the vase was “personally retained.”
She also kept a set of sterling silver jewelry by Isabel López Joyeria given to her by Lavinia Valbonesi, the first lady of Ecuador.
That, and a gold feather brooch, were valued at $760, but Biden decided to send the brooch to the archives.
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