government to undermine our elections for his political gain?
Yes? No?
That's what Trump did.
Trump pressed Ukraine to investigate a political rival.
He used the State Dept for personal, political gain.
He withheld military aid to Ukraine while seeking their help politically.
Although the impeachment inquiry doesn't seem to be covering this, I also believe that Trump violated the emoluments clauses in the Constitution when he attempted to have his own property host G7.
USAToday
The Emoluments Clause is an anti-bribery provision that forbids any U.S. president from receiving gifts from foreign leaders and is derived from the Latin word “emolumentum,” meaning “profit” or “gain.”
The Emoluments Clause is Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution. It prohibits any “Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States]” from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
As Mick Mulvaney said
“At the end of the day,” Mr. Mulvaney said Sunday, “he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business, and he saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world, and he wanted to put the absolute best show, the best visit that he possibly could.”
So, is Trump the president or he does he still primarily consider pushing his properties his job? And putting on a *show*?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/us/politics/trump-g7-doral.htmlNYTimes
At a minimum, the president’s role in steering business to his own resort clashed with his promise, made 10 days before he was sworn in, that he would recuse himself from anything to do with his properties.
“My two sons, who are right here, Don and Eric, are going to be running the company,” Mr. Trump said at the time, referring to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. “They are going to be running it in a very professional manner. They’re not going to discuss it with me.”
From Whitehouse.gov. How it is that, if his sons actually are running the company now, he could offer to do a deal with what he says is his property?
Q Mr. President, on your decision to not hold the G7 — the G7 not at Doral? Are you planning to do it at Camp David now?
THE PRESIDENT: Doral — Doral was a very simple situation: I own a property in Florida. I was going to do it at no cost, or give it free, if I got a ruling, because there’s a question as to whether or not you’re allowed to give it because it’s like a contribution to a country. I’d have to get a ruling. But I would have given it for nothing. It’s a lot of — a lot of money I would have given away, like I give away my salary. I give away my salary. It’s, I guess, close to $450,000. I give it away. Nobody ever said he gives away his salary. Now it comes up because of this. But I give away my presidential salary.They say that no other President has done it.
Like most of what Trump says, it's not 1 that no other president has given away his salary. This nebulous "They say" needs to be LOOKED UP by people who aren't too lazy to fact check this con artist. Incidentally, he's spent way more than his salary on his golfing trips. I remember when he said he was going to be too busy being president to go golfing. Vanity Fair- Trump's *very inexpensive* golf habit could cost more than $340 million".
CREW-Trump's Conflicts of interest tracker- as of today, 2557, Trump in office 1005 days.
