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The way Republican lackeys keep flocking to establishments with ‘The Trump Label’ … one could be forgiven for thinking we now live in some sort of “Banana Republic” or something — where nepotism and cronyism and “financial kickbacks” are just an accepted part of American governance.
Just SOP — What’s the problem!?
Trump Companies Earn Millions While Bankrupting Secret Service
by Robin Marty, Care2, truth-out.org — August 25, 2017
[...]
Despite the "Emoluments Clause" -- the Constitutional rule stating that no president should use his or her position in office to create financial gain — the President's Trump businesses, which he refused to officially remove himself from, are making profit hand over fist. And most of that new business is coming straight from the Republican Party itself.
According to the Washington Post, the Republican Party has spent $1.3 million in funds renting out Trump hotels and resorts just since the start of 2017. Meanwhile, the RNC and the Republican Governor's Association has used these locations for their fundraisers, events and other meetings -- all while essentially giving financial kickbacks to the Trump family.
[...] [emphasis added]
And it’s not just the Party infrastructure that the ‘strong man’ is bilking — he’s still amping up his ‘red meat’ supporters with nearly non-stop “Campaign Rallies” — in order to keep in his personal coffers filled, supposedly for his “2020 Re-election Campaign”.
$10,000,000 in 6 months — not a bad haul, for several dishonest day’s work ...
Trump's 2020 Campaign Has Already Paid Out $600K — to Trump
by Ashley Feinberg, wired.com — 07.20.17
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Even though Trump is, in fact, the current president, he only stopped running for a brief few hours on Inauguration Day. As soon as Trump filed for re-election, at 5:11 pm on January 20, his campaign officially sprang back into action. That means Trump can legally continue to funnel funds from donors back into his own businesses. According to the Trump campaign's self-reported FEC filings, this has amounted to about $600,000 spent at Trump-owned properties in just the first six months of his presidency.
Nearly $400,000 of that campaign money went to rent at Trump Tower, with $90,000 going to the The Trump Corporation for "legal consulting," nearly $60,000 to the Trump International Golf Club, $15,000 to the Trump International Hotel in DC, and about $1,700 to Trump-brand bottled water, among various payments. And that's just the money that went to businesses in which Trump has a personal role. The Trump campaign has spent a total of $10 million in the last six months; any shell companies and subsidiaries of other Trump-owned businesses that may have gotten a piece of that don't have to be disclosed.
[...] [emphasis added]
What is that Constitutional Safeguard, that ‘America’s Noriega’ just keeps breaking — all the while thinking No one has the stones to stop him?
Here’s some "background” context from the Washington Post, on that “Of, by and for the People” Safeguard, of last resort:
1. What, exactly, is the Emoluments Clause?
It is 49 words in Article I of the Constitution.
“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, 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.”
In this instance, the words that matter most are the ones we have placed in italics.
According to legal scholars, these words were added out of a concern from the 1700s that American ambassadors, on the far side of the ocean, might be corrupted by gifts from rich European powers.
Hmmm? Do rich Russian Oligarchs count as possible source of gifts and corruption?
How about political lackeys hoping to curry favor, booking any open POTUS business — all on their unknowing donors dimes.
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How would the Constitution Framers advise us, to reverse this rapid descent into a “banana” caricature of a [dys-] functional democracy?