#10: Profiting off the presidency
Trump was the first billionaire to ascend to the presidency. When he took the mantle in 2017, he defied the near-universal advice from ethics specialists and refused to divest from his international business empire. Instead, Trump temporarily turned over control of his company to his adult sons, which he said his lawyers cleared from a conflict-of-interest standpoint.
The biggest issue, the experts said, was the appearance of a massive conflict of interest.
“It is reflective of his own moral compass. It is showing the way in which he thinks about his role as president,” said Rose-Ackerman, the Yale professor who studies political corruption. “It isn’t tied so much to a million dollars here or a million dollars there. It’s tied to his perspective about what it means to be president – that he sees it as giving him free range to do things.”
Trump spent considerable time at his own properties and golf clubs, substantially raising their profile, and even making money from the federal government along the way. Trump’s company billed the US government millions of dollars, including for Secret Service agents to stay at his properties while protecting him.
His high-end hotel in Washington, DC, became a mainstay for GOP insiders and lobbyists, and even some foreign officials, who were accused of buying influence by booking rooms. (The Trump Organization said it voluntary donated all profits from foreign governments to the United States Treasury.)
PROFITING OFF THE PRESIDENCY
Trump will leave business, but won’t sell
Trump admin says Trump can profit from foreign hotel guests
Defense Department charged $300,000 at Trump properties since 2017
Political spending at Trump properties tops $22 million
“We’ve depended on a combination of legal requirements and norms to prevent conflicts of interest and self-dealing,” said Deborah Hellman, a University of Virginia law professor who studies political corruption. “Once norms get broken, it’s hard to put them back together again.”
Some of the experts said there are serious questions about Trump’s potential violations of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution, which bans federal officials from taking payments from foreign governments. DC-area businesses, as well as Democratic lawmakers and attorneys general, tried to go after Trump in the courts, but progress has been slow.
This was yet another situation where Trump skirted norms and benefited from the fact that the laws on the books aren’t really designed to deal with a president with his own global business.
“What Trump figured out – the autocrats that I study, like Orban in Hungry, Erdogan in Turkey and Bolsonaro in Brazil, they all do this – they operate in this space where no law actually prohibits, but soft norms govern. And because there is no law, it’s hard to hold them to account. That’s how democracies collapse,” said Scheppele, the Princeton expert on failed governments.
Trump was the first billionaire to ascend to the presidency. When he took the mantle in 2017, he defied the near-universal advice from ethics specialists and refused to divest from his international business empire. Instead, Trump temporarily turned over control of his company to his adult sons, which he said his lawyers cleared from a conflict-of-interest standpoint.
The biggest issue, the experts said, was the appearance of a massive conflict of interest.
“It is reflective of his own moral compass. It is showing the way in which he thinks about his role as president,” said Rose-Ackerman, the Yale professor who studies political corruption. “It isn’t tied so much to a million dollars here or a million dollars there. It’s tied to his perspective about what it means to be president – that he sees it as giving him free range to do things.”
Trump spent considerable time at his own properties and golf clubs, substantially raising their profile, and even making money from the federal government along the way. Trump’s company billed the US government millions of dollars, including for Secret Service agents to stay at his properties while protecting him.
His high-end hotel in Washington, DC, became a mainstay for GOP insiders and lobbyists, and even some foreign officials, who were accused of buying influence by booking rooms. (The Trump Organization said it voluntary donated all profits from foreign governments to the United States Treasury.)
PROFITING OFF THE PRESIDENCY
Trump will leave business, but won’t sell
Trump admin says Trump can profit from foreign hotel guests
Defense Department charged $300,000 at Trump properties since 2017
Political spending at Trump properties tops $22 million
“We’ve depended on a combination of legal requirements and norms to prevent conflicts of interest and self-dealing,” said Deborah Hellman, a University of Virginia law professor who studies political corruption. “Once norms get broken, it’s hard to put them back together again.”
Some of the experts said there are serious questions about Trump’s potential violations of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution, which bans federal officials from taking payments from foreign governments. DC-area businesses, as well as Democratic lawmakers and attorneys general, tried to go after Trump in the courts, but progress has been slow.
This was yet another situation where Trump skirted norms and benefited from the fact that the laws on the books aren’t really designed to deal with a president with his own global business.
“What Trump figured out – the autocrats that I study, like Orban in Hungry, Erdogan in Turkey and Bolsonaro in Brazil, they all do this – they operate in this space where no law actually prohibits, but soft norms govern. And because there is no law, it’s hard to hold them to account. That’s how democracies collapse,” said Scheppele, the Princeton expert on failed governments.
