A $400 million 747 for life. Real estate deals around the world for himself and his family. Golf tournaments for his golf clubs (both foreign and domestic). Billions of sovereign investment funds from Saudi Arabia being invested into his son-in -law’s new investment company (a startup since his son-in-law has to first learn the business). Crypto ventures (also a new business for the family) based on a coin with zero value that provides wonderful possibilities to bribe the president since he gets a piece of each purchase. Opportunities for people to join a club where the major attraction is to have interactions with the President (and perhaps a private tour of the White House). Foreign nations spending millions to hold events at his the president’s hotel. Etc., etc.
The foregoing, of course, only represents the tip of the iceberg of corruption in this administration, from Musk’s new contracts and dropped investigations to Pam Bondi’s sale of millions of stock just before her client (after all, she is his attorney general) announced his new gigantic tariffs and the stock market crashed. But those issues, ranging across a large spectrum of illegality, are not specifically prohibited by the Constitution, and it seems the federal Justice system and many states seem disinterested in pursuing them, perhaps out of fear of retribution.
Since Donald Trump has no shame and the Justice Department is now just an arm of his organization, it seems someone else is going to have to sue him to stop his selling of the presidency and the United States to any foreign government who wishes to bribe him. It is somewhat amazing that his supporters—remember “drain the swamp”?—don’t get upset over his actions, but then again they apparently accept the fact that a king (or a pope) is beyond any constraint in ruling his dominion. I guess they also look forward to his $45 million-plus birthday parade (coincidentally on the date of the Army’s 250th birthday), which will probably be the norm when he begins his third term.
There were three substantial federal cases concerning the Constitution’s two Emoluments Clauses that were brought against Trump during his first term. Lower courts ruled that the president is subject to those provisions of the Constitution (actually Trump’s attorneys never really contested this) but that individual members of Congress could not bring claims on behalf of Congress as a whole. The lower courts ruled, however, that competing hotels had standing to sue Trump on the basis that they were in marketplace competition with his properties and would be damaged if foreign nations booked rooms in his properties or spent money there. The Supreme Court ducked.
None of the cases were resolved by the time he left office, and the Supreme Court ruled that they all should be dismissed at that time since they were moot. Basically, the Court reasoned that a president could be sued for foreign bribery claims in violation of the Emoluments Clause but you had to do so, and get a final definitive ruling, before the bell rung at the end of his or her term. This remarkable conclusion, assuring that all Trump had to do was stall and run out the clock, denied justice to the plaintiffs in those cases and to the American people. During Trump’s first administration, the Supreme Court obviously delayed any rulings on his cases to assure that they would not be concluded and could then rule (as they did) that they were moot since he was out of office.
What are the Emoluments Clauses? One proscribes gifts and titles from foreign nations, and the other refers to domestic activity. The Foreign Emoluments Clause is applicable to all federal officials (including the president) and prohibits them from accepting money or gifts from any foreign governments unless they receive permission from Congress. The clause concerning domestic action sets the president’s salary and precludes a president from receiving any further funds as a bonus or a raise from either the federal government or a state.
Simply put, our founders did not want any bribery or even the possible odor of such corruption, domestic or foreign, to taint the new republic’s government and president. The check on possible foreign bribes was Congress, which is required to review the proposed emolument and give its approval. (This has not been a problem for Trump; he has never, during his first administration or now in his second, requested any Congressional review, including when Saudi Arabia and other states lined up in his first term to stay at his hotel in Washington, D.C., or did business with his family members.)
So what happens now, and in the future, if presidents just wash their foreign bribes in their business entities or blatantly accept them with no congressional review and no consequences because of a flawed, complacent Supreme Court? I don’t think that the people of the United States really believe that the president is above the reach of the Constitution. I don’t think they are naive enough to accept that a president should be allowed to take millions from other nations and believe those bribes won’t effect his judgment and actions, perhaps adverse to the interests of the nation.
A plane is a plane, and the Constitution is the law of the land. Preferential business partnerships and deals with the rulers and families of sovereign states in countries desiring to influence the president (and perhaps forestall threatened tariffs) are clearly emoluments under the Constitution. Where is Congress? Where is the Justice Department? Lawsuits should be brought now, before the Supreme Court ends any litigation because he is out of office. That would truly be calling the game because of darkness, which may be permanently detrimental to our democracy.
