We already knew that Donald Trump had no mandate, and did not deserve a honeymoon. But it turns out that his honeymoon could literally be counted in seconds. That’s how long it took between the time Trump was sworn in as president and the time it took to formally launch the first of what will likely be many efforts to get him impeached.
Free Speech for People and Roots for Action formally launched the “Impeach Trump Now” campaign at the moment Trump officially took the oath of office. The campaign is premised on the notion that when Trump raised his hand and swore to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, he was flagrantly violating that oath. Specifically, the Emoluments Clause, which bars federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign powers.
Impeach Trump Now argues that Trump’s “extensive business dealings with foreign governments, businesses owned by foreign governments, and other foreign leaders” are a blatant violation of the Emoluments Clause. While Trump has turned over control of the Trump Organization to a blind trust overseen by his sons, he still intends to retain his controlling interest in the company. As a result, the proceeds from the Trump Organization’s numerous deals with foreign governments are still going to flow directly into Trump’s pocket. Impeach Trump Now argues that the Emoluments Clause required Trump to divest his stake in the Trump Organization in order to comply with the Emoluments Clause, and his failure to do so means that he was in violation of that provision “from the moment he took office.”
In case you missed it, Trump has made the poorest show of separating himself from his real estate empire. During the campaign, he didn’t put forward a credible plan for how he would distance himself from the Trump Organization if he became president. On paper, most federal ethics rules don’t apply specifically to the president. But you shouldn’t need a law or rule to know that a president must not even appear to unduly favor his own business interests. Trump has already walked all over that basic principle. He allowed his daughter, Ivanka, to sit in on a meeting with the Japanese prime minister and brought her in on a call with Argentina’s president–implicit messages that if you cross the Trump Organization, you will cross the president of the United States.
But while many of those conflicts can simply be added to the laundry list of reasons why Trump does not deserve a second term, a large chunk of them are egregious enough to directly violate the Emoluments Clause. Ethics experts from both sides of the aisle have been shouting from the rooftops that if Trump went on this route, he would be violating the Emoluments Clause–and therefore, could not honestly take the oath of office.
On Wednesday, four of those experts made wrote an op-ed in The Atlantic begging Trump to see reason. Richard Painter, Bush 43’s former chief ethics counsel; Norman Eisen, Obama’s former chief ethics counsel, Harvard Law School constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, and former Supreme Court clerk Joshua Matz warned Trump that his actions in office would be “haunted by the specter (and perhaps reality) of divided interests.” The only way to resolve that conflict would have been for Trump to sell his stake to “a truly blind trust or its equivalent.”
The next day, Painter and Eisen, who have led the charge to shine the hot lights on this blatant constitutional violation, appeared on NPR’s “Fresh Air” to make a final plea to Trump. Eisen called Trump’s foreign entanglements “frankly and nakedly unconstitutional,” and found it “extraordinary” that Trump would literally be violating the Constitution from the moment he took office. Painter agreed, saying that Trump needed to “take the steps he needs to” in order to unwind his massive conflicts. That advice went unheeded. And now, on the face of it, Trump is violating the very document he’s been sworn to protect.
At least one lawmaker is already well ahead of this petition. Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a constitutional scholar in his own right, has already vowed to introduce articles of impeachment at the first sign that Trump has violated the Emoluments Clause.
Trump would like you to believe this isn’t a big deal. Well, it’s time that we served notice on Trump that this is very much a big deal. Sign here.
