Trump's emoluments: Just a fancy name for corruption
Politico reports: “Trump himself is tens of millions of dollars in debt to China: In 2012, his real estate partner refinanced one of Trump’s most prized New York buildings for almost $1 billion.” The report explains, “The debt includes $211 million from the state-owned Bank of China — its first loan of this kind in the U.S. — which matures in the middle of what could be Trump’s second term, financial records show.”
This is not simply a matter of messing up President Trump’s baseless attack on former vice president Joe Biden regarding his son’s dealings with China. It is a textbook case of an emolument — money from a foreign government, which is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution.
“Ever since his now infamous January 2017 press conference in which Trump declared he would defy the foreign emoluments clause and keep his businesses, the danger to Americans was plain,” says Norman Eisen, who served as counsel for the House impeachment managers. “By keeping their business interests, he and his family have for three years tainted our foreign and domestic policy decisions with unconstitutional conflicts.” That said, Eisen thinks this is “a new low.” He asks, “Can anyone who has seen the president’s ruthless exploitation of his office for personal gain be confident that his financial dependency on China did not influence his judgment in dealing with coronavirus?”
That’s not the only foreign conflict of interest. The covid-19 relief package explicitly prohibited Trump’s business from getting money from the U.S. government, so instead it reportedly turned to foreign governments. Bloomberg reports, “The Trump Organization is seeking U.K. and Irish bailout money to help cover wages for bartenders, bagpipers and other employees furloughed from its European golf properties because of the coronavirus lockdown.” It might not be illegal or improper under U.K. law, but it most certainly is a constitutional problem back home.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/24/trumps-emoluments-just-fancy-name-corruption/