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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(108,290 posts) Mon Aug 7, 2017, 03:22 PM Aug 2017

How the Trump hotel changed Washingtons culture of influence

On a June morning, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and his wife enjoyed croissants in the lounge of the opulent hotel, a day before joining President Trump a few blocks away at the White House for a Rose Garden news conference.

Downstairs that same day in the grand ballroom, hundreds of bankers discussed their industry’s future under Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin , who lived in the hotel for six months at his own expense, according to a spokesman, after Trump picked him for the job.

The scenes illustrate a daily spectacle of Washington influence at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., the city’s newest luxury hotel that has quickly become a kind of White House annex. Since Trump’s election, the Trump International Hotel has emerged as a Republican Party power center where on a good day — such as July 28 around 8 p.m. — excited visitors can watch the president share intimate dinner conversation with his just-named chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and be the first to brag about it on social media.

This is nothing Washington has ever seen. For the first time in presidential history, a profit-making venture touts the name of a U.S. president in its gold signage. And every cup of coffee served, every fundraiser scheduled, every filet mignon ordered feeds the revenue of the Trump family’s private business.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/politics/trump-hotel-business/?utm_term=.0efd56c1a821&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation&wpmk=1

Remember the words that were projected over the entrance to this hotel one night? "Pay Trump bribes here".

5 replies

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How the Trump hotel changed Washingtons culture of influence (Original Post) Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Aug 2017 OP

Given that the FBI has been investigating Trump for decades, how did Trump get the hotel? Not Ruth Aug 2017 #1

guess that emoluments clause was just a joke our forefathers thought up spanone Aug 2017 #2

The forefathers mistakenly assumed that anyone willing to BigmanPigman Aug 2017 #3

i bet they are.... spanone Aug 2017 #5

Our descent into a third world hellhole continues. Initech Aug 2017 #4

Not Ruth

(3,613 posts)

1. Given that the FBI has been investigating Trump for decades, how did Trump get the hotel?

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Mon Aug 7, 2017, 03:47 PM

Aug 2017

spanone

(135,898 posts)

2. guess that emoluments clause was just a joke our forefathers thought up

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Mon Aug 7, 2017, 03:50 PM

Aug 2017

1. What, exactly, is the Emoluments Clause?

It is 49 words in Article I of the Constitution.

“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 the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”

In this instance, the words that matter most are the ones we have placed in italics.

According to legal scholars, these words were added out of a concern from the 1700s that American ambassadors, on the far side of the ocean, might be corrupted by gifts from rich European powers.

Benjamin Franklin, for instance, had accepted a snuffbox festooned with 408 diamonds from the King of France. John Jay accepted a horse from the King of Spain.

After that, the Emoluments Clause rarely came up again. It’s never been the subject of a major court case and never been taken up by the Supreme Court, leaving great uncertainty about what it means — and to whom, exactly, it applies — in the 21st century.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/what-is-the-emoluments-clause-does-it-apply-to-president-trump/2017/01/23/12aa7808-e185-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html?utm_term=.6ae591424e4c