House Democrats Are Planning To Go To War Over Trump’s Presidential Profiteering

As more reporting lays Donald Trump’s blatant presidential profiteering in recent weeks, Democrats in the House of Representatives are set to take their investigations to another level.

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As MSNBC’s Joy Reid noted on her Saturday program, Democrats are planning to vote next week on whether to formally define the terms of their ongoing impeachment probe.

“There is an impeachment investigation that is actually stepping up a level as of next week,” the MSNBC host said. “The House Judiciary Committee is going to take a formal vote on really defining what the impeachment inquiry will look like.”

Reid said the recent news about Trump profiting in various ways off American taxpayers “could be a part of” next week’s committee vote.

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Reid said:

There is an impeachment investigation that is actually stepping up a level as of next week. The House Judiciary Committee is going to take a formal vote on really defining what the impeachment inquiry will look like, this impeachment investigation, which is what the House Judiciary chairman is calling it. There is already a sort of pre-impeachment process in place in Congress. It looks like this is something that potentially could be a part of it. I just want to read to the audience, we keep saying Emoluments Clause. I want to read you what that is, just to remind you. It is the following. It says, and this is a constitutional emolument: “No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state.” That’s the foreign Emoluments Clause and essentially in plain English means that no president can accept any gift or any sort of installment of becoming a lord or a gentry or member of their government or anything of value from a foreign government.

Trump’s Emoluments Clause violations are piling up

Trump has been in violation of the Emoluments Clause since day one, but in recent weeks those violations appear to be more flagrant. With the entire Republican Party in Congress unwilling to act, the president seems to have caught on that he’s free to use the federal government as his piggy bank.

Whether it’s Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, paying his hotel $30,000 to host a personal holiday party, Vice President Mike Pence staying at his Ireland hotel at Trump’s request, or using the U.S. military to keep his struggling Scottish resort afloat, there is no longer a question that this president sees his office as a way to bring in cash for his failing businesses.

The constitutional violations are piling up, and it’s important for the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives – the only entity in U.S government willing to hold Trump accountable – to step up their investigations.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.