To drum up business from foreign governments
Then there’s that emoluments case.
A federal judge on Monday sharply criticized the Justice Department’s argument that President Trump’s financial interest in his company’s hotel in downtown Washington is constitutional, a fresh sign that the judge may soon rule against the president in a historic case that could head to the Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland, charge that Mr. Trump’s profits from the hotel violate anti-corruption clauses of the Constitution that restrict government-bestowed financial benefits, or emoluments, to presidents beyond their official salary. They say the hotel is siphoning business from local convention centers and hotels.
It’s siphoning business because people see patronizing the hotel as a way to bribe Trump to talk to them, probably accurately.
The Trump Organization signed a 60-year-lease in 2013 with the federal government for the building, renovated it and reopened it as a hotel just before Mr. Trump was elected president. Since then, the plaintiffs claim, the hotel has made special efforts to drum up business from foreign governments, including appointing a head of diplomatic sales. Mr. Trump himself regularly visits.
I didn’t know the hotel had appointed a head of diplomatic sales. That’s corrupt as hell right there.
It’s the corruption equivalent to the Gish Gallop. Break enough laws and norms in as short a time as possible, and the wheels of justice cannot turn fast enough to keep up.
And it’s even harder when the wheels of justice seem as disinclined to turn as our current Republican-controlled Congress. They’re getting what they want, and they don’t want to anger voters, so they are as susceptible to Trump’s Gish Gallop as the folks in the pews are to Gish’s Gish Gallop.