When Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009, Republicans complained that it was a violation of the foreign emoluments clause. However, the Supreme Court ruled that it was not, for the very good reason that the Nobel Prize, which had also been won by two previous presidents, is not funded by a foreign government. It’s not the type of activity the clause was designed to guard against.
This is.
President Donald Trump’s business receives direct payments from a registered foreign agent funded by the government of Abu Dhabi.
The U.S. headquarters for the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority is located on the 22nd floor of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue — just four floors below the president’s penthouse apartment. The authority, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, promotes tourism to Abu Dhabi, which is part of the United Arab Emirates. It has been registered as a foreign agent with the U.S. Department of Justice since 2012.
There’s nothing questionable about this. It’s a registered foreign agent pouring cash directly into Trump’s coffer. It’s also happens to be a tourism organization for a country where Trump plans to build a hotel.
Trump has promised to tighten regulations against foreign contributions to campaigns—though that area is already regulated. But Trump’s network of interlocking companies makes it all too simple for companies to simply contribute to Trump. Trump’s “self financing” of his campaign allowed him to dodge rules on foreign contributions by running funds through his own bank accounts, rather than those of his campaign.
And the same loophole may keep him from ever facing the emolument clause.
Donald Trump is also in violation of another emoluments clause against accepting payments from the government other than his salary.
The moment Trump takes that oath, he will violate it. This is because Donald Trump has refused to divest himself of his business, both domestic and foreign and will receive, as a result, on January 20, 2017, emoluments from foreign sources and domestic governments, federal, state and local.
Of course, Trump’s defenders have answers.
Recently, University of Iowa law professor Andy Grewal has raised a related point – that payments to Trump-owned businesses aren’t “office related” unless there is direct payment to him, under a historical definition of the term “emolument.”
Despite his recent song and dance about turning over day to day operations to his sons, Donald Trump remains the 100 percent owner of the Trump Organization. If the same dodge that allowed Trump to evade scrutiny of foreign contributions during the campaign also makes him proof against the emolument clause, then both laws might as well be scrubbed from the books.
But then, Republicans may that care of that problem as well.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a suit over Trump’s foreign payments which is currently before a District court in New York. However, it’s not clear just who is considered to have grounds for such a case.