In the not-too-distant past, the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution was relatively obscure to the public. Donald Trump changed all of that.
As we’ve discussed many times, the clause prohibits U.S. officials from receiving payments from foreign governments. Traditionally, this hasn’t been much of a problem for sitting American presidents. During the Trump era, however, it became one of the Republican’s under-appreciated controversies.
While serving as president, Trump owned a hotel that sat roughly a half-mile from the White House, which hosted international officials with some regularity. As we’ve discussed, the result was a dynamic in which foreign governments spent quite a bit of money at a Trump-owned property, to the benefit of the then-American president and his private-sector enterprise.
The Republican had some vague understanding that the Constitution prevented him from receiving payments from foreign governments — Trump referred to the legal provision as “phony“ for reasons he never explained — but he did it anyway.
The former president has sold the hotel, but the scope of his alleged wrongdoing continues to come into sharper focus. The New York Times reported:
Donald J. Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his presidency, according to new documents released by House Democrats on Thursday that show how much he received from overseas transactions while he was in the White House, most of it from China.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee unveiled the results of an investigation in a lengthy, 156-page report called “White House For Sale.” Relying on documents from Mazars USA, Trump’s former accounting firm, congressional researchers determined that the Republican’s businesses received “at least“ $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments.
What’s more, the scope of the examination was relatively narrow: Oversight Committee Democrats focused only on four Trump-owned…
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