President Trump’s acceptance of a $400 million luxury jet from the country of Qatar is a violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The Emoluments Clause prohibits U.S. federal officials from receiving any gifts, payments, or other benefits from foreign countries or their rulers without the consent of Congress. It also restricts the President from receiving additional compensation beyond their salary from the U.S. government or any state. This provision aims to prevent undue influence and corruption of U.S. officials by foreign entities.
Trump’s argument that the plane is being given to replace an outdated Air Force One and will be donated to his presidential library upon the end of his term is also a violation of the emoluments clause. As stated by Congressman Jamie Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, it also violates the domestic emoluments clause.
Of course, a Trump presidential library is interesting idea since he hardly reads or writes. But that is a discussion for another day.
Trump’s violation of the Emoluments Clause during his second term is an escalation of his activities during his first term. Initially, foreign diplomats were using Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel. They stayed there, ate there, held conferences there, and made sure that Trump was aware of their patronage.
Additionally, there was the frequent use of Trump properties by his staff and the Secret Service during his travels. However, as people complained about this blatant corruption, it was reported that much more was going on. Foreign governments were finding ways to do favors for Trump’s businesses. For example, in Indonesia, a local government planned to build a road between the main airport on the island of Bali and the new high-end Trump resort and golf course.
In Panama, the country’s federal government intervened to ensure a sewer system around a 70-story Trump skyscraper. In other countries, governments donated public land, approved permits, and eased environmental regulations for Trump-branded developments, creating potential conflicts of interest as leaders made investments that can be seen as gifts to Trump to gain access to the American President.
Trump did not sweat these potential violations of the Emoluments Clause because, early in his first term, lawsuits filed on behalf of the American public against Trump were dismissed in federal courts. A federal judge ruled against lawsuits that claimed President Trump’s failure to divest himself of his real estate empire and other business holdings violated the Constitution’s ban on receiving foreign “emoluments” while in public office. Note that previous presidents had divested their businesses or put them in a trust.
Strangely, the U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the suits were flawed because the plaintiffs lacked legal standing in the matter. It seems that the Emoluments Clause is intended to protect the American public, yet the public cannot bring a legal case to maintain that right.
The judge ruled only Congress to press charges for violation of the Emoluments Clause, which puts us in a dire situation as the Republicans who rule Congress nowadays are rubber stamping all of Trump’s actions.
Congressman Rankin
on this issue:
Every other President in U.S. history has come to Congress with far smaller things than this. Some of them have even come on things that are nonmonetary in nature, like when President Kennedy was offered Irish citizenship and then declined to do that after getting advice not to do it. Or remember, Obama refused to accept the $1 million that went with the Nobel Peace Prize. But Donald Trump is in a class by himself, and he’s talking about pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods and services.
No other president has come close to doing something like this [the luxury airplane, the crypto dealings, etc.]. It’s an outrageous abuse of the law, and Donald Trump will push everything as far as he can go. That’s why we say to our Republican friends, You’ve got to draw the line here. We need to establish boundaries on his behavior. He will literally go as far as you allow him to go, and it’s very important for us to cut it off here. And then, we also need to have serious legislative dialogue and make some progress on crypto and the use of crypto to circumvent all of the campaign finance laws and bribery laws of the country.
If Congress does not act, and soon, we will have institutionalized corruption in the Oval Office.
