Mother Jones illustration; Joel Martinez/The Monitor/AP; Getty Congress put rules in place ages ago to ensure that federal appointees and employees (including judges) don’t use their jobs to enrich themselves. The Office of Government Oversight vets those officials for conflicts of interest and can compel them and their spouses and minor children to dispense with assets deemed likely to create a conflict. For our purposes, all you need to know is that those rules don’t apply to the president, vice-president, or federal lawmakers—which is stupid, but whatever.
The Constitution , however, does place limits on elected federal officials. The president is entitled to a predetemined salary and that’s all. He is forbidden from taking anything further of value from the federal governments or any state government.
Furthermore, without the consent of Congress, no federal officeholder may accept “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” This is not ambiguous. It means no foreign money , period.
Yet President Donald Trump’s affairs are awash in foreign money. ( Domestic, too .) Among other problems, foreign governments have rented units at Trump Tower, booked rooms and events at his hotels and resorts, and approved his company’s overseas deals and developments—not to mention those of son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose private equity fund got a $2 billion investment from a Saudi sovereign wealth fund shortly a.
