You know, back in the day, I thought George W. Bush was a really terrible president.
Funny how your opinion can change, isn’t it?
Back in the day, no one in their right mind would have even considered for one minute that a reality TV star with three wives and 4,000 lawsuits could have won a single primary. If you added in the fact that said reality TV star was a big supporter of the Russian government and was on tape bragging about how he grabs women by the p*ssy, nobody would have thought the guy could have gotten one vote.
But now here we are. In the land of what the f*ck happened. Faced with the imminent swearing in of the reality TV star to the office of the Presidency.
Everyone in their right mind is appalled.
Everyone.
Even the former ethics advisor for George W. Bush, if you can believe that.
Richard Painter served under George W. as chief White House ethics lawyer. He understands conflicts of interest and he understand the U.S. legal code. He told the New York Times in an op-ed published on January 12th, a day after the President-elect’s first press conference that he was not comfortable with Trump’s business plans.
Painter said:
“Mr. Trump will simply turn management of the businesses over to a trustee chosen by him, and to two of his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric. This is not a separation at all, and from a conflict of interest vantage point, it won’t work.”
The ethics lawyer pointed out that Trump still refuses to release his tax returns, even though his cabinet nominees will be required to do so in order to be confirmed. He brought up the by now well known “emolument clause” of the constitution, saying:
“First, if Mr. Trump continues to own the businesses, he will continue to receive payments they earn from dealings with foreign governments. Most if not all of these payments will violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which expressly forbids anyone in public office from receiving any gifts, salary or profits of any kind from transactions with foreign governments without the consent of Congress.”
He went on to talk about the many properties that are owned by, and carry the name of, Trump enterprises. He pointed out the fact that any foreign government that would make use of those properties would be enriching and therefore potentially influencing Trump. But he also mentioned that those properties are likely to become terrorist targets, and Trump doesn’t seem to have even considered the people who work there.
“Third, and perhaps most dangerous to our national security, our president could be beholden, and indebted, to undisclosed lenders and other investors around the world.”
So welcome to the world of what on earth is going on.
We can only hope that the people in Congress agree and work on impeaching the big crook.
Featured image by U.S. Embassy New Delhi via Flickr. (CC BY-ND 2.0)
