President Donald Trump with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Russian Embassy PhotoNearly 200 Democratic members of Congress sued President Donald Trump last week over foreign money flowing into his global business empire.
The lawsuit is monumentally important, though it got little attention given the rest of last week’s news: a gunman’s attack on Republican congressmen practicing for a charity baseball game and the revelation that the president himself is, in fact, under investigation for obstruction of justice.
But this lawsuit (and two more like it) is aimed at money, profits, possible favors and motivation – the heart of all things that trouble the Trump presidency. The suit brought by Congress members alleges that Trump is violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which states: “No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
When foreign leaders and their contingents come to Washington and book rooms in the new Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue just blocks from the White House, (or buy memberships and visit Mar-a-lago, the “Winter White House,” or visit and play golf at Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club) the president and his family profit, blurring the lines between what’s good for the country and what’s good for the Trumps.
The president doesn’t make potential conflicts-of-interest and quid-pro-quo appearances any neater for himself when he says things like: “I’m a dealmaker,” and “If he [Putin] says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him.”