Heidi M. Przybyla

USA TODAY

President-elect Donald Trump's spokesman denied Monday an Argentine news report that Trump sought a business favor when that nation's president called to congratulate him on his Nov. 8 election victory.

"Not true," Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller told USA TODAY in an email.

Trump’s Buenos Aires office building project has been delayed by a series of issues, including financing and permitting requirements. When Argentine President Mauricio Macri called Trump to congratulate him on his election victory, Trump asked Macri to address the permitting issues, according to Jorge Lanata, one of the country’s most prominent journalists.

“This still hasn’t emerged but Trump asked for them to authorize a building he’s constructing in Buenos Aires, it wasn’t just a geopolitical chat,” said Lanata, who is quoted in La Nacion, one of Argentina’s leading dailies. A translation was provided by Talking Points Memo.

Reporter Will Carless in Buenos Aires tweeted that Macri's spokesman told him that the La Nacion was not true and that Trump did not ask about his project during the call with Macri.

Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan tweeted that "presidents. can't. do. this."

During the campaign, Trump said Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was guilty of "pay to play" by accepting donations to her family charity, the Clinton Foundation, from foreign countries like Qatar. There was never any indication she granted favors on behalf of those donors as secretary of State.

Trump has been receiving a flurry of calls from foreign leaders after his Nov. 8 election victory. The report comes as he is facing scrutiny over his business empire, which he says he will hand off to his adult children. The Trump team has called the arrangement a “blind trust.” Government ethics experts say it is not blind since his kids will be running it and that it raises significant concerns about foreign and domestic policy decisions he’ll face that would impact his global business networks.

Trump is also including his children in his transition team and his daughter, Ivanka, was seen attending a closed-door meeting last week with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that about 100 foreign diplomats gathered for a reception in a ballroom at Trump Hotel in Washington in which many of them openly questioned whether staying at a Trump hotel will help them curry favor with the new president.

The New York Times reported that in the last week Trump met with three Indian business partners who flew from India to congratulate him. The trio is building a Trump-branded luxury apartment complex south of Mumbai. In a picture posted on Twitter, all four are smiling and giving a thumbs-up.