Fox News' Andrew Napolitano: Trump holding G7 at Doral resort is a 'profound' emoluments clause violation
President Trump just created an "enormous headache" for himself with his plan to hold the 2020 Group of Seven summit at his Florida resort, according to Fox News' Andrew Napolitano.
The network's legal analyst reacted Thursday after the White House announced the 2020 meeting of world leaders would be held at the president's Doral golf resort, calling this a violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits the president from accepting "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
After quoting from this clause, Napolitano noted its purpose is to "keep the president of the United States of America from profiting off of foreign money," and so Trump holding the summit at his private resort is "about as direct and profound a violation of the emoluments clause as one could create."
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The White House has claimed the resort was simply the best venue for the event and that Trump will not profit from it. Napolitano, however, dismissed this defense.
"The president owns shares of stock in a corporation that is one of the owners of this, along with many other investors," Napolitano said. "He also owns shares of stock in the corporation that manages it. Those corporations will receive a great deal of money from foreign heads of state because this is there. That's exactly what the emoluments clause was written to prohibit."
Fox host Neil Cavuto also sounded fairly baffled by Trump's decision, saying he'd think Trump would "bend over backwards to avoid" holding the event at a location with his name on it. "You would think so," Napolitano responded. "But you know the president. He loves a fight, and he just picked another one." Brendan Morrow
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