57 Comments
User's avatar
Susan Wladaver-Morgan's avatar

What’s his personal cut on the gold card visas? And the national park cards with his picture on them? And everything else?

Jay Jay Eh's avatar

Personal benefits happen indirectly in these ego-driven propagandist maneuvers.

- having His Image on everything from coins of the realm to visas is a blatant display of power and virtual monarchism intended to appeal to fellow elites - the ones he *said he was exorcising from the White House.

- Similar to the ‘den of thieves’ found in Matthew 21:13, where Jesus says, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a 🧛 den of thieves."

… his condemnation of the 🔱 commercial activities taking place in the Temple.

The White House / Oval Office now known as the GRIFT SHOP.

patricia's avatar

is it the young Elvis or fat Elvis version

Sylvia Young's avatar

You all are the best. This roundup a bracing reminder of the great, skillful advocates we have, we who show up on the ground in small gatherings and large. Tougher here in Maine right now but, we persevere and are grateful for your sturdy professional leadership!

Hiro's avatar

I do not care as much Trump and his family making so much money as I care more about shifting of the national income toward riches from the middle to poor. A person can live so long and s/he cannot spend billions of dollars during that life time.

bitchybitchybitchy's avatar

When a president and his family openly exploit his office in order to make corrupt financial deals it affects all of us.

Marcus's avatar

Thanks for this revealing and honest article. It reconnected me to an old Pink Floyd song about promoters and developers called "Have a Cigar". The refrain in the song is:

"...And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?

We call it riding the Gravy Train!"

I say we make it our dedicated collective effort to stop Trump's Gravy Train!

Robot Bender's avatar

I remembered the same song. Great album.

Cleo's avatar

I'm thinking Stevie Wonder- "You Haven't Done Nothing" (We want the truth and nothing else)

Patricia Dempsey's avatar

It's staggering! How does any one person track it all? Why has nobody pushed back on all of this? I mean, REALLY pushed back!

Steve 218's avatar

That is the big question. If any private citizen had ripped off and grifted to this extent, (consider Bernie Madoff, for example) there would be prosecution (and there was). In the case of the Grifter in Chief, crickets.

George Patterson's avatar

SCOTUS has ruled that he can't be prosecuted.

Sandy S's avatar

George please see my comment elsewhere in this post about the SC corruption.

Arkansas Blue's avatar

The answer to your question is real easy: who among the fascist majorities in the US Senate, the US House and the six on the US inferior court is going to push back?

Steve 218's avatar

"The White House denies any wrongdoing, stating “the American public believe it’s absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency.”"

It is equally absurd to believe any words that come out of this White House, a veritable house of lies. Congress has done nothing to put the brakes on any of this. Neither has the GAO, and all of the departments charged with enforcing the emoluments clause. We have seen a vast dereliction of responsibility and action here. It is clearly time to do a lot of housecleaning. When people pointing fingers and chucking sandwiches at government agents are are charged with felonies, while the white collar crime of the executive goes unchallenged, we do not have a functioning system of justice.

Nan Reiner's avatar

With apologies to the dear and recently departed Tom Lehrer ("Pollution")...

♫♪ If you visit our Capital City,

Bear in mind this little ditty.

Just one thing you must be sure to know:

Bring lots of quid and you might get your quo.

Corruption, corruption: Crypto, cash or gold in a lump…

Plop down your loot at the feet of Donald J. Trump. ♫♪

Dina Dorich's avatar

So, are we to assume that the Supreme Court considers all that Trump is doing as part of his official duties? Is the Court even familiar with the emoluments clause? Or, is that another part of the Constitution that the Court chooses to ignore?

Michelle Jordan's avatar

Stay on the Tom Homan case Democracy Defenders! I don’t believe a word he says. On that note, thanks for all you do Norm.

Mo Khan's avatar

There are reports that trump is looking at leveling 4 other buildings. - I noticed that all seem connected with the new deal and are historic in DC.

-we need lawsuits to stop ANY more destruction in DC without proper committee approval and congressional votes

Jay Jay Eh's avatar

There IS a lawsuit in progress for his first tear-down.

— hopefully that will cool his jets for more.

Science Curmudgeon's avatar

tRump's Christmas gifts to us aren't stocking stuffers, they are shocking stuffers.

Irena's avatar

I am quite sure that the 2 main reasons this dreadful person decided to run for POTUS is: [1] MONEY and [2] VENGEANCE.

George Patterson's avatar

[1] Staying out of jail.

Jan Barrett's avatar

And it keeps him out of jail for past CRIMINAL convictions.

Arkansas Blue's avatar

Obviously, the convicted felon Drowsy Don just became a billionaire this year for the first time. This second term is a wet dream come true for everyone in his criminal clan.

Nancy Lorance's avatar

Follow the money, but with all of the non-traceable fund transfers, will we ever really know the extent of the grifting?

KnockKnockGreenpeace's avatar

Yeah, big coincidence that, huh? Kind of like the "classified" explanations of murder and an undeclared war. Don't ask, and we won't tell!

David Glaser's avatar

My view is that Donald will have to be made to repay every penny he’s profited from through these emoluments. He’s simply not entitled to them in any way as is stipulated in the constitution. The only reason he has been successful at stealing these emoluments is that we as a country lack an enforcement mechanism to hold him to account. That needs to be addressed and changed in the next democratic presidency and Congress.

Violating the emoluments clause falls outside of the periphery of the presidency and thus, he should be able to be indicted and prosecuted for this lawless conduct. He and everyone in his administration needs to be held to account.

I’m hoping a well organized legal team can follow this process all the way through his presidency and create a structure on how to proceed with prosecution immediately after his exit of the presidency.

Judith Swink (CA)'s avatar

Re your final paragraph, I'm certain that many legal teams are doing exactly that.

George Patterson's avatar

IMO, the Qatar "Air Force One" is the biggest problem. The real Air Force One 747 contains many sophisticated electronic defensive measures to make it difficult or impossible for bad actors to shoot it down. Turn that over to Trump with all of these intact would be like handing the schematics to Russian experts. At the very least, all of these items should be removed.

Robot Bender's avatar

It should be stripped for usable parts and the rest scrapped.

John Frangelico's avatar

What a depressing read. I never thought I would live to see such criminality and flagrant corruption in an American president. The country's founders must be spinning in their graves. I hope someday there will be real accountability for what trump and his cronies have done to this country.

Jay Jay Eh's avatar

God’ll get’em if no one else does.

Trump himself predicted that Heaven wouldn’t have him! 🕊️