Why Aren't Donald Trump's Epic Conflicts of Interest Illegal?

LOL coming from a Clinton supporter

 

Trump says it's OK, if the president does it.



(He's kinda right in that conflict of interest laws don't address the presidency. But the emoluments clause does.)





If he wasn't a real billionaire upon winning the election, he will be when he leaves office. We have terms for this kind of behavior but we'll not use them so he can have his safe space.

 

Congressmen can do legal insider trading.

 

Yeap, those in power have better laws for them. Because you know, those in power write laws.

Again, he took full advantage of tax laws (to the point where his lawyers were concern). Why would you not think he will not do the same for his business benefits while in office? I expect him to take full advantages of favorable laws to the President for personal gain.

 

Wow. Give the man a chance to see what he sets up before assuming he's going to defraud the country.

Really pathetic that the democratically elected president who hasn't begun his term is already being lynched!

 

Ummm... In case you haven't noticed, the man hasn't even taken the oath of office and is already profiting off/appearing to profit from the office. He admitted that he has spoken personal business during the course of president-elect duty. What more to wait for? Not meeting some kind of corruption threshold, yet?

And no, not lynching, just scrutiny. Something every president should endure, despite Trump's attempt to shut out and control media access in more restrictive ways.

 

He's piling up conflict of interests like no tomorrow. Talk about pay to play:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/opinion/donald-trumps-caldron-of-conflicts.html


■ On Tuesday, he acknowledged that he “might” have brought up his discontent with plans for an offshore wind farm near one of his golf courses in Scotland with a British politician, Nigel Farage, and asked him to oppose the wind project. Mr. Farage, who led the movement to leave the European Union, has significant political influence in Britain. Doing a favor for Mr. Trump’s business could help smooth the way to a highly favorable trade agreement with the United States after Britain leaves the E.U.

■ Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka was present at a meeting he had with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and was on a phone call he had with President Mauricio Macri of Argentina. There is no justification for her presence in these meetings.

■ Foreign diplomats told The Washington Post that they were booking hotel rooms and spending money at the Trump International Hotel down the street from the White House to ingratiate themselves with the incoming administration.

■ Mr. Trump met with Indian developers who have licensed the Trump brand for a real estate project in the city of Pune and are hoping to capitalize on his victory by extending the deal to even more developments in India. Mr. Trump’s business interests there might well pose a conflict with any policy he promotes toward that nation.

■ During the campaign, the Trump Organization established companies in Saudi Arabia, apparently an effort to do real estate deals there. Those potential businesses could easily serve as vehicles for the Saudi government to try to exercise influence over Mr. Trump.

 

unreal

Rocket River

 

Exactly. And I thought it was just me.

But people really believe this sort of garbage. They really do. They will spin Hillary into the next Fu Manchu of evil and paint Trump as some sort of saint. Or savior, anyway.

I even met people last night who should know better but pliantly go along with Trump's outreach to help the inner cities. I was stunned and wish I hadn't kept my mouth shut. One of them is black. The other socially liberal. But they're older and religious and, therefore, overly trustful. Neither truly follows the news and so they're semi-immune to the totality of Trump's scumminess.

 

I'm telling you man, it's the f***ing Twilight Zone.

But....did Trump have a personal email server? That's the real question. If that happens....well, if that happens, we'll just have a double standard for that, too.

 

What's funny is that if he does mishandle classified information, people that probably still defend Hillary will finally see the light and realize that it's illegal and VERY bad. Perhaps some who understood that it was illegal will end up defending him. Politics make people stupid.

 

With all due respect, what a steaming load of crap. Quite an accomplishment, dude.

 

I wonder what his and his families; personal worth will be in 4 years

Now I see why not releasing the tax returns was so important

Rocket River

 

You my friend are a case in point of how stupid someone can get. What's funny is that you actually think highly of yourself - which is probably what enables you to be so ignorant about everything.

I suggest you put more time into your high school civics class than posting your very backwards views on here.

 

LOL and that is how I can tell I hit a little too close to home for you. No worries kiddo, I know how it is.

 

Why do you keep doing this? Anytime Trump is mentioned you immediately come Pavloving with one or 3 of your buzzwords: liberal, Hillary, democrat, etc.... You say you're not defending any party or politician but it happens every single ****ing time. Like clockwork.

 

No worries. Soon the press won't be able to report on these things.

 

Guess I just put this here.

https://apnews.com/cc2e2c2b6b4d4417afff3aa5f768be10

Trump hotel may be political capital of the nation's capital
By JULIE BYKOWICZ
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — At a circular booth in the middle of the Trump International Hotel's balcony restaurant, President Donald Trump dined on his steak — well-done, with ketchup — while chatting with British Brexit politician Nigel Farage.

A few days later, major Republican donors Doug Deason and Doug Manchester, in town for the president's address to Congress, sipped coffee at the hotel with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

After Trump's speech, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin returned to his Washington residence — the hotel — and strode past the gigantic American flag in the soaring lobby. With his tiny terrier tucked under an arm, Mnuchin stepped into an elevator with reality TV star and hotel guest Dog the Bounty Hunter, who particularly enjoyed the Trump-stamped chocolates in his room.

It's just another week at the new political capital of the nation's capital.

The $200 million hotel inside the federally owned Old Post Office building has become the place to see, be seen, drink, network — even live — for the still-emerging Trump set. It's a rich environment for lobbyists and anyone hoping to rub elbows with Trump-related politicos — despite a veil of ethics questions that hangs overhead.

"I've never come through this lobby and not seen someone I know," says Deason, a Dallas-based fundraiser for Trump's election campaign.

For Republican Party players, it's the only place to stay.

"I can tell you this hotel will be the most successful hotel in Washington, D.C.," says Manchester, adding that he would know because he has developed the second-largest Marriott and second-largest Hyatt in the world. Manchester says Trump's hotel will attract people based on its location near the White House and Congress, the quality renovation and the management team.

Then there's also the access.

Although Trump says he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of his businesses, he retains a financial interest in them. A stay at the hotel gives someone trying to win over Trump on a policy issue or political decision a potential chit.

That's what concerns ethics lawyers who had wanted Trump to sell off his companies as previous presidents have done.

"President Trump is in effect inviting people and companies and countries to channel money to him through the hotel," said Kathleen Clark, a former ethics lawyer for the District of Columbia and a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

She said the "pay to play" danger is even greater than it would be if people wanted to donate to a campaign to influence a politician's thinking. Spending money at a Trump property "is about personally enriching Donald Trump, who happens to be the president of the United States."

The White House strongly disputes there's any ethical danger in Trump's business arrangements.

Trump can see his hotel from the White House. When a Fox News interviewer mentioned that to him recently, Trump responded, "Isn't that beautiful?" But while the interviewer pointed out that he can see the property from his desk in the Oval Office, Trump said, "I'm so focused on what I'm doing here that I don't even think about it."

Still, Trump couldn't resist the short trip over there for dinner on his only weekend night out in Washington since becoming president.

A reporter for the website Independent Journal Review was tipped off about Trump's dining plans and sat at a table near him. He noted the president's dinner fare and companions, who also included daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Trump adviser Jared Kushner.

On other nights, the posh hotel is the kind of place where on a mid-February evening, you could bump into Trump television personality Katrina Pierson having cocktails with Lynne Patton, a former Trump Organization executive who's now working at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Trump campaign and inauguration hands Tom Barrack, Boris Epshteyn, Nick Ayers and Rick Gates are among the many who have stayed there in recent weeks.

Rooms start at above $500 most nights, according to the hotel's website and a receptionist. That's up hundreds of dollars from when the hotel first opened, not long before Election Day. Patricia Tang, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, declined to answer questions about how business is going.

The hotel has become a staging area for big political events.

Eric and Donald Trump Jr. posed for dozens of selfies with admirers at the hotel that bears their name before attending their father's White House ceremony in late January to announce Judge Neil Gorsuch as the president's pick for the Supreme Court.

Deason ran into the Trumps and fellow Texas donor Gentry Beach while at a meeting at the hotel that day with Trump's campaign adviser Rudy Giuliani. During inauguration week, when Trump himself repeatedly visited, the hotel was "literally the center of the universe," Deason said.

Last Tuesday, as Trump gave his first address to Congress, lobbyists and politicos watched the four large flat-screens above the bar, two tuned to Fox news and two to CNN. In what hotel staff said was an effort to avoid some of the obvious politics of the place, the TVs were muted, so people followed along on their own devices.

As Trump wrapped up, applause rose through the lobby and bar. Mnuchin waved to admirers gathered in the bar as he strolled through after Trump's speech.

Mnuchin is one of the New Yorkers working in Washington who call it home during the week. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn is another. Linda McMahon, who heads the Small Business Administration, also has been staying there.

Administration officials "have been personally paying a fair market rate" for their accommodations, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said.

Even Trump's closest friends pay to stay.

Billionaire Phil Ruffin, Trump's partner for his Las Vegas residential tower, said he shelled out $18,000 per night while he was in town for the inauguration, which he said surprised him since he'd given $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee. Ruffin says he lightly complained about the high rate to the president.

"He said, 'Well, I'm kind of out of it.' So I didn't get anywhere, didn't get my discount," Ruffin recalled.

Trump's continued ownership of his hotel and other businesses has spawned lawsuits and ethics complaints, but so far no action on any of them. One accommodation Trump says he is making on the ethics front is to donate profits from foreign governments that spend money at his hotels.

Last week, Kuwait's ambassador, Salem Al-Sabah, and his wife hosted a reception in the hotel's presidential ballroom, in what was one of the first known instances of foreign money changing hands with the hotel division of the Trump Organization since he became president. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization did not respond to questions about whether the money from the Kuwait Embassy has been or will be donated.

Mnuchin attended.