Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has written legislation that would prohibit the president and vice president and their family from profiting off of investments from foreign governments.
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Rep. Swalwell said on MSNBC’s The Last Word. “I have written legislation, Ali, that would tighten up the emoluments clause. The courts are allowing a lawsuit Senator Blumenthal have brought forward and I and other plaintiffs to go forward. I have legislation that would prevent the president and the vice-president or anyone in their family from benefiting financially at all during their tenure in the white house, from any foreign national investment. So there’s a lot we can do. Also, Ali, let me say, I thought over the last 48 hours that maybe the president was parroting the Saudis. But now that I start to listen to the president’s defense, I wonder if they are parroting him, because they are sounding a lot like what he said about the trump tower meeting. He didn’t know the meeting took place. And so it sounds like this is just kind of his strategy of deny, deny, deny, and he’s projecting that onto the Saudis.”
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Swalwell later added, “Our founders envisioned this problem long before it presented itself here. We broke away from the British, the French helped us. They wanted to make sure we were not loyal to other countries because they were investing in us. And also, Ali, the president went over to Saudi Arabia. It was his first foreign visit, you know, and then this bizarre blockade happened right after he left where the Saudis and U.A.E., the Emirates blocked Qatar from going into Saudi Arabia. And the president bizarrely supported this, despite our largest base being over in the Middle East in Qatar. And so there are a lot of strange connections between the president and the Saudi government that I think a new Congress could understand and untangle.”
Foreign governments, like the Saudis, are buying off Trump spending money at his properties, because this president did not separate his business interests from the presidency. What Trump is doing is an impeachable offense. It is also highly corrupt, but not the only form of graft currently occurring.
A Democratic Congress Is Going To Come After Trump’s Graft And Corruption
There are several ways that a Democratic House majority could crack down on Trump emoluments violations. The House controls the budgetary purse strings. There has already been talk of banning the spending of taxpayer funds at Trump properties, which means that the president would no longer be able to charge the taxpayers for golf cart rentals and other expenses that come with his visits to his properties. Congress can also direct how funds are allocated to the Executive Branch and how they are spent. Congress can pass legislation like Swalwell’s tightening the Emoluments Clause, and if worse came to worse, the House could simply cut Trump off of the taxpayer for anything other than essential travel and security.
If Democrats take back the House, they are going to have control of the budgeting process, and that means that the free ride on the taxpayers’ dime is going to end for Trump and his family.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
