Trump Wins First Round in Legal Battle Over Emoluments
To a certain segment of the American population â those who have spent the past 336 days (but who's counting?) dreaming of the end of the Donald Trump presidency â the two words that have given them the most hope have been "Mueller" and "emoluments." Almost everyone knows that the Robert Mueller investigation is moving forward amid serious questions whether  Donald Trump  will fire  him   so let's talk about what's happening with the emoluments issue.
Days after  Trump  became president  the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)  a good government watchdog group  brought a lawsuit against the president claiming that his continuing to own his hotel chains around the world was an illegal emolument. Yesterday  crushing the hopes of those looking to topple  Trump   a federal judge threw this lawsuit out of court.
What's this have to do with  Donald Trump ? Well  unless you've completely ignored everything about our president  you know that he has hotels all over the world. The theory of the lawsuit against him is that  now that he's President of the United States  foreign leaders will stay in those hotels over competitors as a way to curry favor with the president. Think about it this way: If you're the head of state of another country that needs to win  President Trump  over for your country's benefit and you need a hotel room for the night when you're traveling  would you choose a  Trump  hotel or one of  his  nearby competitors? CREW and a few competitor hotel owners claim in their lawsuit that the foreign dignitaries will choose the  Trump  hotel  thus both enriching the President and winning  him  over as a result. To the plaintiffs   Trump 's continued ownership of these hotels while President is a violation of the Emoluments Clause and is a signal that he is being bought by foreign leaders.
In response to the lawsuit  the  Trump  administration made several claims. Their most substantive response was that paying a hotel bill is not a "present" or "emolument" but rather an ordinary business transaction. To  Trump   a foreign leader engaging in such a small-time deal with a Trump business has nothing to do with American foreign policy and is not ripe for the corruption the Constitution prohibits.
To a certain segment of the American population â those who have spent the past 336 days (but who's counting?) dreaming of the end of the Donald Trump presidency â the two words that have given them the most hope have been "Mueller" and "emoluments." Almost everyone knows that the Robert Mueller investigation is moving forward amid serious questions whether   [TGT] will fire   [TGT]    so let's talk about what's happening with the emoluments issue.
Days after   [TGT] became president  the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)  a good government watchdog group  brought a lawsuit against the president claiming that his continuing to own his hotel chains around the world was an illegal emolument. Yesterday  crushing the hopes of those looking to topple  Trump   a federal judge threw this lawsuit out of court.
What's this have to do with  [TGT]  ? Well  unless you've completely ignored everything about our president  you know that he has hotels all over the world. The theory of the lawsuit against him is that  now that he's President of the United States  foreign leaders will stay in those hotels over competitors as a way to curry favor with the president. Think about it this way: If you're the head of state of another country that needs to win   [TGT] over for your country's benefit and you need a hotel room for the night when you're traveling  would you choose a   [TGT] hotel or one of   [TGT]   nearby competitors? CREW and a few competitor hotel owners claim in their lawsuit that the foreign dignitaries will choose the   [TGT] hotel  thus both enriching the President and winning  him  over as a result. To the plaintiffs   Trump 's continued ownership of these hotels while President is a violation of the Emoluments Clause and is a signal that he is being bought by foreign leaders.
In response to the lawsuit  the   [TGT]   administration made several claims. Their most substantive response was that paying a hotel bill is not a "present" or "emolument" but rather an ordinary business transaction. To  Trump   a foreign leader engaging in such a small-time deal with a  [TGT]  business has nothing to do with American foreign policy and is not ripe for the corruption the Constitution prohibits.