The headline says it all. From the latest edition of the New York Review of Books comes the story of the issues surrounding President Trump’s financial web.
Like every president to precede him in the last four decades, President Obama placed all his investments in a blind trust, so that he would be unaware of his interests and therefore free of conflicts of interest with respect to the many decisions he might make.
But not so the current resident of the White House. Trump elects to continue to hide his tax returns and to hold his assets in his own name and delegates only the management to others.
...the Constitution subjects the president to a conflict-of-interest law: the so-called “emoluments” clause. That clause provides that no federal officeholder may, absent express approval by Congress, accept “any present, Emolument,…of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
The intent is to insure holders of political office at all levels serve the best interests of the public at large as opposed to their personal or family interests. The problem looms large these days.
Trump initially dismissed the idea that there would be any problem with his running the United States and the Trump Organization simultaneously.
Despite those assurances no acceptable arrangement has been provided to date. With the current Republican controlled Congress we can expect little or no movement from that quarter.
If the Constitution is to be enforced, it will have to come at the insistence of the people.
We, the people, have power when we act in concert. Today as in the past the actions of the public have remarkable influence over the actions of both judicial and political officials. The power may not be what we wish or hope to see, but we as individuals remain responsible for acting in the best interests of the nation as a whole.
The president of the United States is supposed to serve the American people, not himself, and certainly not the interests of foreign states. President Trump chose to seek this office, and this responsibility. He is trying to have it both ways, serving himself, his family, and his far-flung business interests while simultaneously making foreign and domestic policy decisions that will inevitably have direct effects on his personal holdings.
If this course is allowed to continue the consequences to the future of the nation may be severe. The time to nip this in the bud is now. We are reliant on the judicial system, however slow it may move, to force some remedy to this mess. In the meantime we each and every one can take to social media in order to spread the word. We can spend the time to talk to everyone we meet in hope of changing minds one at a time. The one course we can ill afford is inaction. Action is good for the mind, the soul, and the future we leave for our grandchildren.
Peace.