Donald Trump has been steadfastly unwilling to divest himself from his business empire, and indeed has continued to use his status as candidate and now president-elect to funnel money to that empire. It runs the gamut from using Trump-owned venues for meetings and fundraisers to serving Trump-branded bottled water to renting out floors of Trump Tower to the government agency assigned to protect him.
It continues to be a crooked arrangement, and he's about to run afoul of the Constitution itself.
The Embassy of Kuwait allegedly cancelled a contract with a Washington, D.C. hotel days after the presidential election, citing political pressure to hold its National Day celebration at the Trump International Hotel instead.
The case here is straightforward. ThinkProgress discovered that the Kuwaiti Embassy had already contracted to hold their planned yearly event at the Four Seasons as usual:
But after the election, members of the Trump Organization contacted the Ambassador of Kuwait, Salem Al-Sabah, and encouraged him to move his event to Trump’s D.C. hotel, the source said.
Kuwait has now signed a contract with the Trump International Hotel, the source said, adding that a representative with the embassy described the decision as political.
This would be the precise arrangement drafters of the Constitution sought to preclude; a foreign power putting money in the hands of the soon-to-be president as easy means to gain the new administration's favor. You know: Crookedness. That the Trump Organization itself contacted the ambassador to request the change of venue means that it was not an out-of-the-blue decision by Kuwaiti officials—it was directly solicited by Trump’s own team.
Yup. He’s that crooked. He just can’t help himself.