Trump Hotels And The Foreign Money Trail

Is Donald Trump in violation of the Emoluments Clause?  One look at the foreign money being funneled his way via various Trump hotels and you’ll see the answer is a resounding YES!

Politics
While Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and party leaders have been conducting an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, other House Democrats have been busy investigating how he has been using his Trump hotels to make funny-money off of foreign favor.

Here’s how the scheme works:

Foreign governments have been booking blocks of rooms at various Trump hotels (at the rack rate, of course) but never staying in them.  Why, you ask?  Because it’s an “undercover” way for foreign officials to put cash directly into Donald Trump’s personal pockets in exchange for some political favor.

By law, a sitting US president may not accept a direct or indirect cash payment from any government.  However, it appears that’s exactly what Trump has been doing since his surprise elevation to the Oval Office.

“Now we’re looking at near raw bribery,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia who is a House Oversight Committee member and chairs the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Trump hotels in Washington. “That was the risk from Day One: foreign governments and others trying to seek favor because we know Trump pays attention to this. … It’s an obvious attempt to curry favor with him,” he added.

“If true, at minimum, this suggests there is a culture of corruption that the administration has created,” said Rep. Ro Khanna of California. “There’s a sense that to curry favor you have to engage in pay to play. That’s exactly what the American people hate about Washington.”

According to Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is also a member of the House Oversight Committee: “The unifying theme of congressional investigations is examining the president’s abuse of his office and his power to advance his personal political agenda and his goal of financial self-enrichment.”

Those words couldn’t have been more timely.

This latest investigation began after the House Oversight Committee was tipped off that a US trade association and a foreign government each booked a large number of rooms at several Trump hotels but barely used any of them.  The emoluments clause of the Constitution forbids a sitting president from profiting from foreign governments or receiving any money from the US government except his or her annual salary.

“Potential violations of the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution are of grave concern to the Committee as it considers whether to recommend articles of impeachment,” wrote Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York.

Not surprisingly, Trump has repeatedly denied that he is using the presidency to promote his resorts and profit off of his political clout.

“I have a lot of hotels all over the place, and people, they use them because they’re the best,” he said last month.

Nevertheless and in a very wise quest to be pro-active, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has now directed 6 committees (including Oversight) to not only continue their investigations as part of the impeachment inquiry, but to also examine potential violations of the Emoluments Clause and then forward a full report to the Judiciary Committee.

OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Sneaky foreign profits via various Trump hotels?