Violations of the Emoluments Clause

     Norm Eisen of the Brookings Institute came up with a list of Trump violations of the Emoluments Clause even before Trump assumed office (but after he won the Electoral College victory):

Trump’s business partners in India are themselves connected to Indian politicians, resulting in an array of potential conflicts relating to development policy and permitting.

[S]ince his election, Mr. Trump has met in his office with developers and other business partners from the Philippines.

On a recent call with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey, Mr. Trump went out of his way to mention that he and his daughter (who also participated in the call) both admire Mehmet Ali Yalcindag, Mr. Trump’s business associate in the Trump Towers in Istanbul.

It has been reported that Mr. Trump opposes wind farms because he has decided that they ruin the view from his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland. Recently, Mr. Trump openly lobbied Nigel Farage—a British political ally of his—to oppose wind farms in the United Kingdom, an issue that does not otherwise appear to be of relevance to American foreign policy.

Even as Mr. Trump has delegated greater authority to his three children (Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Junior) in running the Trump Organization, he has continued to involve them in exceptionally important federal business.

Most troubling, Ivanka has participated in several meetings between Mr. Trump and foreign heads of state, including those from Turkey, Argentina, and Japan. Ivanka’s presence at Mr. Trump’s meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan is especially striking, since Ivanka is currently in talks with Sanei International (whose largest shareholder is wholly owned by the Japanese government) to close a major and highly lucrative licensing deal.

Donald Junior, who plays a major role in overseeing new project acquisition and development for the Trump Organization, had a role in interviewing candidates for the position of Secretary of the Department of the Interior, whose policies can have significant consequences for foreign companies.

     It seems fantastic, but it is true that all of these violations of the Emoluments Clause occurred before Trump assumed the presidency. As President-elect, he still held an "Office of Trust" within the Government (and within the scope of the Emoluments Clause). But there are yet more:

Mere weeks before Mr. Trump spoke by phone with the President of Taiwan, dramatically altering American foreign policy, a businesswoman claiming to be associated with Mr. Trump’s conglomerate arrived in Taiwan and made inquiries about major new investments in luxury hotels.

Shortly before the election, President Duterte of the Philippines named Jose E.B. Antonio, a business partner of Mr. Trump and founder of a company behind Trump Tower Manila, as a special envoy to the United States.

After Mr. Trump spoke of banning Muslim immigrants, President Erdoğan of Turkey demanded that Mr. Trump’s name be removed from Trump Towers in Istanbul; but that demand abruptly ceased after Mr. Trump defended President Erdoğan’s brutal crackdown on Turkish dissidents.

     And there are still more. Remember, we haven't gotten to his actual tenure in office yet:

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China—owned by the People’s Republic of China—is the single largest tenant in Trump Tower. Its valuable lease will expire, and thus come up for re-negotiation, during Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Even as debates rage over American/Russian relations and Russian cyberattacks on U.S. interests and even on the recent presidential election, it has been reported that Russian financiers play a significant (albeit concealed) role in Mr. Trump’s organization.

Mr. Trump’s businesses owe hundreds of millions to Deutsche Bank, which is currently negotiating a multi-billion-dollar settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, a settlement that will now be overseen by an Attorney General and many other appointees selected by and serving at the pleasure of Mr. Trump.

Federal prosecutors in Brazil are in the middle of a sensitive (and now politically-freighted) criminal investigation into whether two pension funds that invested in the Trump Hotel in Rio de Janeiro were bribed to do so.

In Ireland, Mr. Trump wants to build a wall that would protect a coastline near his Trump International Golf Links course. Environmentalists, however, worry about an endangered species: the vertigo angustior snail. This fight will go to a national planning board, which may now find itself enmeshed in treacherous international politics relating to Mr. Trump.

     Before you get to the dusty boring end of this material, we have a surprise in store for you There's a second Emoluments clause. And guess what Trump is doing? If you guessed that he is likely violating it, you win. This is also in the Constitution:

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

     This is from Slate:

Public pension funds in at least seven U.S. states have invested millions of dollars in an investment fund that owns a New York hotel and pays one of President Donald Trump’s companies to run it, according to a Reuters review of public records. …

The Trump SoHo Hotel and Condominium in Manhattan is an upscale 46-story property owned by a Los Angeles investment group, the CIM Group, through one of its real estate funds. The possible problem for Trump lies in the fact that state- and city-run pension funds have invested in the CIM fund and pay it a few million dollars in quarterly fees to manage their investments in its portfolio, which includes the Trump SoHo, according to state investment records.