13 Trump Scandals You Forgot About

[Rhiannon12866]

Any other year, one of these could have derailed a presidency.

The first six months of the Trump presidency have been a whirlwind of Russia-related news, with revelations about the Kremlin’s attempt to sway the election and the Trump campaign’s possible role in the effort surfacing nearly every day. But imagine for a moment a world in which the Russia scandal didn’t exist. Pretend that Trump didn’t fire FBI Director James Comey, or that Don Jr. never met with a Russian lawyer and a former Soviet spy promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Forget that Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort had to register retroactively as foreign agents, or even that Trump said he wouldn’t have hired Jeff Sessions if he’d known the attorney general would recuse himself from the Russia probe.

What you’re left with is still a remarkable amount of other administration scandals—from the State Department’s stay at a Trump hotel to Jared Kushner’s disclosure problems—that would have been major news any other year, with any other president in the White House. Here are a few to remember.

Foreign governments are paying Trump

The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution says the president cannot “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.” This means that many of Trump’s continued business dealings—he has refused to divest from his real estate company—could very well be illegal: For one, Trump has hotels all over the world—from Saudi Arabia to the Philippines—and receives foreign money from his overseas holdings constantly.

There’s also the issue of the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., which has become a popular destination for foreign diplomats. A week after the November election, about 100 foreign officials were invited to an event at the property, during which they toured the building and sipped champagne. While Trump promised before taking office that he’d donate all profits earned from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury, he doesn’t appear to have kept that pledge. So far, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have all held events at the hotel, but there’s also the trickier matter of how to account for individuals linked to foreign governments. A Trump Organization pamphlet published in May said that “putting forth a policy that asks all guests to identify themselves would impede upon personal privacy and diminish the guest experience of our brand.”


Much more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/26/13-trump-scandals-you-forgot-about-215420

[oasis]

1. Thanks for the reminder. k and r

[Rhiannon12866]

2. I thought this was worth posting as a reminder. With a new one every day

It really is tough to remember them all.

[SergeStorms]

3. All he's ever concerned with......

is "His Brand". I really think that was the purpose of his entire foray into politics.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Yup, I agree this is his latest "business venture"

He figured it would be an unprecedented chance to make more money than ever - since, as POTUS, everybody everywhere would have to listen to him and nobody could tell him what to do.