David Cole writes in the New York Review of Books that Trump is “almost certainly” violating the United States Constitution every day that he refuses to divest from his international business empire.
He writes (this is an excerpt):
President Trump almost certainly began violating the Constitution the moment he took the oath of office. It’s true that conflict-of-interest statutes don’t cover the president—not because we don’t care about compromised presidents, but because such statutes generally require officeholders to recuse themselves from decisions in which they have a personal financial stake, and in the president’s case, recusal is rarely a workable option, since there is no alternative decision-maker.
But the Constitution subjects the president to a conflict-of-interest law: the so-called “emoluments” clause. That clause provides that no federal officeholder may, absent express approval by Congress, accept “any present, Emolument,…of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” It is designed to ensure that federal officials, from the president on down, serve only the interest of the American public, and are not compromised by foreign influence. In 1787, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina proposed the provision at the Constitutional Convention, urging “the necessity of preserving foreign Ministers & other officers of the US independent of external influence.”1 At the Virginia convention to ratify the Constitution, Edmund Jennings Randolph explained that the clause was “provided to prevent corruption.”2
The emoluments clause is a categorical bar against a president receiving payments from foreign states. Recognizing that divided loyalties are difficult to discern, that self-interest is an extremely powerful motivator, and that foreign states may seek to buy influence, the Framers chose to ban all presents or “emoluments…of any kind whatever.”
The sole exception was where Congress expressly authorized a transaction, presumably on the theory that such a public and transparent accounting would reduce the risk of corruption and undue influence. According to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 1981, an “emolument” is any “profit or gain arising from station, office, or employment: reward, remuneration, salary.”3 As the reference to “salary” or “gain” suggests, the prohibition is not limited to outright gifts, but includes payments for services rendered or profit from ordinary business transactions.
What does this mean for Donald Trump? The extent of his business, the Trump Organization, is murky, since it is privately held and Trump has been extremely reluctant to divulge details. But public records establish that his organization is involved in deals and contracts around the globe. Many of those ventures stand to gain from the actions of foreign governments or their agents—including investments involving foreign state-owned companies, government contracts or permits, lease agreements, or even overnight stays or events held at Trump hotels, golf courses, or other properties.
Trump doesn’t care. Apparently, the Republican majority in the Congress doesn’t care either. Once the party of the Constitution, once the party that praised the “original intent” of the Constitution, the party doesn’t care what Trump does, as long as he keeps them in power.
That is why we have to hold them accountable in 2018 and 2020 for this man’s behavior and his infidelity to our laws and Constitution.
Not listening when the accountant was outlining the details of how he divested … we’re we? Part I liked best was any receipts from stays by foreigners from the old post office turned hotel by Trump go directly into the U.S. TREASURY.
Linda,
Trump divested nothing. He still owns hotels, casinos, and golf courses all over the world.
He transferred management to his sons, but he is still owner.
He is in violation of the emoluments clause.
He is also violating the lease of the hotel in the Old Post Office Building, where he has a hotel. The lease says no elected official may receive any benefit from this lease. It is not about foreigners, it is about his need to divest from the lease.
Read this: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2016/11/gsas-trump-hotel-lease-debacle/133424/
Here is an excerpt:
“The Post Office Lease differs from many of Mr. Trump’s other business arrangements. That’s because, in writing the contract, the federal and D.C. governments determined, in advance, that elected officials could play no role in this lease arrangement. The contract language is clear: “No … elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom…”
“The language could not be any more specific or clear. Donald Trump will breach the contract on Jan. 20, when, while continuing to benefit from the lease, he will become an “elected official of the Government of the United States.”
Linda is delusional. She chooses to believe what she has decided she will believe. Evidence and historical facts are of no consequence to her. Let’s just hope she doesn’t actually have access to teach children.
That is why the foreign proceeds at the old post office goes to the U.S. TREASURY and not to Trump in any way shape or FORM!
What kind of divestment were you looking for that could have occurred rapidly and that would NOT have caused a great financial loss on his part? Remember, President Trump financed the majority of his campaign. He did NOT have MEGA DONORS LIKE HILLARY HAD PAYING for things.
Your reference to more welfare is irresponsible. America tried equal shares for everyone before it even became The United States of America. It did NOT work then and it has NEVER worked anywhere in the world … EVER.
Linda,
The lease on the DC hotel is clear that no elected official may receive any proceeds from this lease. Not foreign profits! No proceeds at all. Trump is breaking the law by holding on to that lease. He is violating the Constitution by getting profits from foreign counties all over.
THANK YOU, Diane.
So he has to divest, but Obama got to keep his millions? He DID divest any connections ACCORDING TO U.S.LAWS!
Trump divested nothing.
He still owns all his properties all over the world.
Obama owned no business. He had nothing to divest other than stocks. That’s what every president has done unril Trump.
That’s why the most respected journal in America–the New York Review of Books–published a cover story saying that Trump is violating the Constitution.
He has put nothing on a kind trust. He has holdings in many countries.
Now to some real news. The latest reports on deportations, if true, are proof positive that the Donald regime is preparing the most draconian, inhuman policies this nation has ever seen in its history. Rounding up people on the streets, separating mothers from children, privatizing detention, and implementing everything at a speed that does not allow for the traditional congressional oversight process to respond real time. We may not be exterminating people as the Nazis did, but they would be impressed at the speed and scope of the process.
Collective exhaustion has arrived. Now, how are we going to respond? The fact that Donald used a widow of a military excursion he mismanaged and approved to cower his opponents doesn’t give me much hope that we are up to the task.
Greg,
These detentions are a huge boon for the private prison industry, which will build and manage detention facilities.
In addition to being inhumane and cruel and heartbreaking.
Profiteering off of human misery. The American Dream for some.
OK, “in our history” was over the top. Meant to write, in our recent history. Didn’t forget about the slaughter of Native peoples, slavery, Jim Crow, internment, lynchings, and all the other history for which we can take no pride.
Criminals … 1) ILLEGALLY ENTERING THIS COUNTRY. 2) IDENTITY THEFT … that is what using someone else’s social security number is after all. That is what the Phoenix woman had spent SIX MONTHS IN JAIL FOR DOING. She also had an existing DEPORTATION ORDER.
There have been NO ACTIONS taken by the current administration that did not occur, in larger numbers, under Obama. Then it was okay, but not now? Unless we remain a country of laws this place will fall to anarchy. What is your plan to end anarchy? The laws would no longer exist …
Violating the laws of this country, or any other country makes you a criminal. We have long passed the days of the “hole in the wall gangs”. Remember, those places criminals would hide in order to avoid the consequences of their actions … today we call them SANCTUARY CITIES.
Time will tell whether this (Trump being elected) has been/is a ploy to get the far regressive right xtian dominionist Pence onto the throne. My gut says it is.
Of course the Salmon Swamp Monster doesn’t want any of his business dealings known and/or sold off. More likely than not those dealings aren’t worth much because of all the red ink. He can get only so much value out of his trumped up name.
Diane, I wonder if someone in public school advocacy could address this:
“Ohio charter schools spend operating dollars on facilities and this spending varies across different ownership situations. In 2014-15, the average charter school in Ohio reported facilities expenses of $785 per full-time equivalent pupil (after accounting for facilities assistance). District-owned facilities and school-owned facilities proved to be the most economical option for Ohio charter schools.”
I don’t know about states other than Ohio, but charter proponents aren’t telling the whole story here. Maybe they don’t know.
The reason Ohio charters don’t get local facilities funding is they aren’t a “taxing entity” locally.
There’s a very good reason for that- they have no local elected governance. You can’t tax locally in Ohio without local representation. This is really important! It’s a bedrock principle in Ohio law. An entity can’t levy local taxes without local elected local governance.
Charter schools in Ohio are a creation of state law. They are STATE schools, not local schools. They wanted this designation because they didn’t want local oversight.
That was part of the deal- they would rely exclusively on state funding because THE STATE (not local communities) created and oversee them. Local people would have no say in their creation and operation but that was okay under Ohio law because STATE funds would support them.
They want it both ways. They want facilities funding but they refuse local oversight. This was not the original deal and it’s not a “technicality”. It’s bedrock- it’s no taxation without representation.
Check your state law when you hear a national charter lobby demanding facilities funding. See what the original intent was of the charter law and ask WHY these laws were drafted like this. Don’t let the Walton Family lawyers bamboozle you. There are two kinds of schools in Ohio- local public schools and charter schools. Charter schools are STATE schools- state run and therefore state funded. All Ohio charter law runs from that basic premise.
http://blog.publiccharters.org/ohio-charter-schools-face-major-facilities-challenges?sf59050106=1
Last year, Utah passed a bill that gave charter schools access to the property tax money.
Chiara is on target as usual. Co-location in public schools and hence getting a bypass on cost of facilities has been promolgated by the Gates Foundation. These agreements, now known as “Gates Compacts,” were designed to get access to facilities and other resources from districts with elected school boards–with a lot of “let’s play nice” rhetoric thrown in. I expect that other states will follow Utah’s path ( see below) given the money and power of the charter school lobby
Trump is not only failing at domestic priorities, he is failing in foreign affairs. Read the whole article for a review of what is wrong and won’t be fixed by Trump.
……………
America Is in Warp-Speed Decline—It’s Way Bigger Than Trump
As conditions in the U.S. deteriorate, the world will continue to suffer the consequences of U.S. military force—but without the mitigating influences of U.S. foreign aid and diplomacy.
By John Feffer / Foreign Policy in Focus March 3, 2017
…Writes Lenny Bernstein in The Washington Post:
The reasons for the United States’ lag are well known. It has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of any of the countries in the study, and the highest obesity rate. It is the only one without universal health insurance coverage and has the “largest share of unmet health-care needs due to financial costs,” the researchers wrote…
For instance, the United States ranked 16th in the 2014 Social Progress Index developed by Michael Porter at the Harvard Business School. Two years later, the United States slipped to 19th place, with particularly mediocre scores in environmental quality (#36), nutrition and basic medical care (#37), and access to basic knowledge (#40)….
Even though Trump can’t be blamed for these mediocre social indicators, his party’s steadfast opposition to spending on social welfare and the environment certainly contributed to the problem. And Trump’s promise to “replace” Obamacare, cut social spending even further, and roll back regulatory oversight — all while boosting the Pentagon budget by an extraordinary 10 percent — will send the United States into free fall. The violent crime rate, which dropped nearly in half over the last 20 years despite what Trump claims, may well start to edge up as our pro-gun president makes firearms even more widely available and the economy takes a turn for the worse…
The new administration has given every indication that it’s exchanging the status quo for something incomparably worse…
As Patrick Cockburn writes in The Independent, “It will be difficult for the U.S. to remain a super-power under a leader who is an international figure of fun and is often visibly detached from reality. His battle cry of ‘Fake News’ simply means an inability to cope with criticism or accept facts or views that contradict his own. World leaders who have met him say they are astonished by his ignorance of events at home and abroad.”..
http://www.alternet.org/world/making-america-mediocre-warpspeed-decline#.WLrE529OrsY.gmail
Diane,
In a previous post on the Trump EO on the Water bill you asked me if I agreed on the dumping of coal refuse into streams – I did say NO. But further review of the EO doesn’t allude to it happening – it only asks the EPA to rework the rule —
In 2015, the American Farm Bureau Federation led a lawsuit against the rule, arguing it puts the burden on farmers to get a permit for using fertilizers near ditches and streams. The case has been in the courts ever since, and the rule has never actually been implemented. Lets see what the EPA designs and react to the new version and Trump’s response….
jscheidell, if you read the link in the post, you will see once again that the EPA rule restricting dumping of coal waste intro running streams will be killed.
I don’t know of farmers who dump coal waste. Frankly, they should not dump coal waste or fertilizer into streams or ponds. It causes the growth of algae that kills the fish.
Diane,
“Mr. Trump’s action on Tuesday technically doesn’t take the regulation off the books for good, but it does give clear guidance to federal agencies that they must “review and reconsider” the rule immediately, potentially ending the ongoing legal battle.”
Here is the link – again it delays, not kills, what has been in court for a year – farmers who have ponds and run off water issues see the reach of the EPA on their land – The EPA was asked to review and rewrite the rule….
Donald Trump executive order targets Obama rule on water protection
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/28/executive-order-trump-targets-obama-rule-water-pro/ –