Tag: Trump abuse of U.S. Constitution

Trump: Being president is a ‘great loser’ because I can’t profit enough

Credit: Andy Buchanan, AFP, Getty Images

NOTE:  We remember during the 2016 campaign and during the Trump transition, how Mr. Trump spoke of how the businesses were being turned over to his sons to run and that he wouldn’t know what was happening there.  Sounds like that’s not happening, doesn’t it?  Anyone surprised?

Trump seems to think being president should work just like investing in real estate.

Trump described the office of the presidency itself like a real estate deal, calling it a “loser” because he claims he has been unable to make money from his position.

“I lost massive amounts of money doing this job,” Trump whined to the New York Times in a Thursday interview. “This is not the money. This is one of the great losers of all time. You know, fortunately, I don’t need money. This is one of the great losers of all time. But they’ll say that somebody from some country stayed at a hotel. And I’ll say, ‘Yeah.’ But I lose, I mean, the numbers are incredible.”

Trump’s comments aren’t just distasteful; they’re also false. He squeezes money out of the Oval Office and into his own pockets on a regular basis.

Federal agency ‘improperly’ ignored constitutional concerns before allowing Trump to keep lease to his hotel, internal watchdog says

The Trump International Hotel in Washington last month. Credit: Ricky Carioti, The Washington Post

The General Services Administration “ignored” concerns that President Trump’s lease on a government-owned building — the one that houses his Trump International Hotel in Washington — might violate the Constitution when it allowed Trump to keep the lease after he took office, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general.

Trump’s company won the lease several years before he became president. After Trump was elected, the agency had to decide whether his company would be allowed to keep its lease.

At that time, the inspector general found, the agency should have determined whether the lease violates the Constitution’s emoluments clauses, which bar presidents from taking payments from foreign governments or individual U.S. states. But it did not, according to the report issued Wednesday.

View the complete January 16 article by Jonathan O’Connell and David A. Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s For-Profit Presidency

Some types of sharks have to swim continuously to keep oxygen coming in; to be still is to perish. Donald Trump is similar, except his unceasing drive is trying to make money. He could no more stop merely because he’s running for president or serving as president than he could take a sabbatical from breathing.

The charges unveiled Thursday against his former fixer, Michael Cohen, suggest just how irrepressible his avarice is. Trump had sought real estate and other deals in Russia for three decades, and he had long wanted to put up a signature building in Moscow. “TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next,” he tweeted after a 2013 visit there.

He bragged about the Russian big shots he knew. He said President Vladimir Putin might become his “new best friend.” Donald Jr. made several business trips to Russia. Son Eric was quoted as saying the Trump Organization had no funding problems: “We have pretty much all the money we need from investors in Russia.”

View the complete December 2 article by Steve Chapman on the Creators.com website here.

At President Trump’s hotel in New York, revenue went up this spring — thanks to a visit from big-spending Saudis

The following article by David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan O’Connell was posted on the Washington Post website August 3, 2018:

Trump International Hotel in Manhattan is the one remaining Trump-branded hotel in New York. Credit: Houdek Vladimir, AP

The general manager of the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan had a rare bit of good news to report to investors this spring: After two years of decline, revenue from room rentals went up 13 percent in the first three months of 2018.

What caused the uptick at President Trump’s flagship hotel in New York? One major factor: “a last-minute visit to New York by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” wrote general manager Prince A. Sanders in a May 15 letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post.

Neither Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman nor members of the royal family stayed at Trump’s hotel, Sanders said: He said the Trump hotel didn’t have suites big enough to accommodate them. But “due to our close industry relationships,” he wrote, “we were able to accommodate many of the accompanying travelers.”

View the complete article here.

Federal judge allows emoluments case against Trump to proceed

The following article by Ann E. Marimow, Jonathan O’Connell and David Fahrenthold was posted on the Washington Post website July 25, 2018:

D.C. and Maryland are suing President Trump for violating a little-known constitutional provision called “the emoluments clause.” (Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected President Trump’s latest effort to stop a lawsuit that alleges Trump is violating the Constitution by continuing to do business with foreign governments.

The ruling, from U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte in Greenbelt, Md., will allow the plaintiffs — the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia — to proceed with their case, which says Trump has violated little-used anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution known as emoluments clauses.

This ruling appeared to mark the first time a federal judge had interpreted those constitutional provisions and applied their restrictions to a sitting president.

View the complete article here.

Trump advocates depriving undocumented immigrants of due-process rights

The following article by Philip Rucker and David Weigel was posted on the Washington Post website June 25, 2018:

Turned away at the border and prosecuted for crossing illegally, Central American asylum seekers are feeling the brunt of Trump’s new ‘zero tolerance’ policy. (Jon Gerberg /The Washington Post)

President Trump on Sunday explicitly advocated for depriving undocumented immigrants of their due-process rights, arguing that people who cross the border into the United States illegally are invaders and must immediately be deported without trial or an appearance before a judge.

Trump’s attack on the judicial system sowed more confusion as lawmakers struggle to reach consensus on immigration legislation and as federal agencies scramble to reunite thousands of migrant children and their parents who were separated at the border under an administration policy that the president abruptly reversed last week. Continue reading “Trump advocates depriving undocumented immigrants of due-process rights”