When Barack Obama first took office, he was faced with a difficult situation. He wondered whether or not he could accept the Nobel Peace Prize. What’s the big deal right? The big deal comes down to something called the “Emoluments Clause.”This is a little known part of the Constitution. It basically states that “no person holding any office of profit or trust” shall “accept of any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state” unless Congress consents. Emolument means compensation for labor or services. The Nobel Peace Prize is a foreign award that comes with foreign money hence Obama’s reluctance in accepting it.
It took thirteen pages for David J. Barron, a Department of Justice official, to make a decision. He eventually stated that it was okay for Obama to accept the prize because even though it is technically a Norwegian prize, the committee that decided the winner is independent of any government. The money was also privately funded and not from the government.
Trump is faced with a similar situation but with far more on the line. Whether you like him or not you have to acknowledge that he does make a lot of money. As a businessman he has a lot of interests in different countries but there lies the problem. Barron, who is now a federal judge, stated that anything funded from a foreign country or state definitely falls under the Emolument Clause. That means anything above fair trade value would be considered something similar to a bribe that Trump cannot accept.
Other conflicting interests include the fact that The Bank of China is a tenant in Trump Tower and is a lender for a Midtown Manhattan building that Trump has a significant interest in. Many of his multimillion dollar real estate deals also involve foreign governments or are controlled by foreign governments. This creates a significant gray area. Legal ethics experts believe if Trump’s precedent stands then it will muddle the waters of constitutional powers for the foreseeable future. The Constitution simply never considered a president that had a vast international empire, there is no historical precedent.
It makes things really murky when you think of all the business deals that Trump is involved in. Any one of those business deals could go south and Trump could be opened to lawsuits. That means they’d be suing the President of the United States, if that isn’t a conflict of interests, we don’t know what is. Political experts, both Democratic and Republican, believe the most prudent course of action is for Trump to divide all his assets into domestic and international and have someone else run the international aspects for the duration of his presidency. Whether or not Trump actually takes that advice is unlikely.
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