Donald Trump must divest in advance of his inauguration from his businesses that may pose a conflict of interest in order to avoid violating the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses, according to a letter sent today to the president-elect by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Should Trump fail to divest from his business portfolio, which has only grown since leaving office in 2021, he will face more, and more serious, conflicts than he did during his first term.

Since leaving office, Donald Trump has expanded his business portfolio. His ownership of Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, poses the most serious conflict of interest, both because, as a large publicly traded company that makes up a significant part of his net worth, it creates a new potential way to curry favor with him and because as president, he will have influence over executive branch agencies that can regulate and investigate publicly traded media companies. Trump’s ownership of Truth Social and several other ventures now creates an even wider array of potential violations of both the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses. 

“The framers of the Constitution foresaw exactly the dangers we are now facing with Donald Trump when drafting the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses,” said CREW President Noah Bookbinder. “As we saw during his first term, those who patronized Donald Trump’s properties often seemed to gain something in return, which only furthered the appearance of partiality and corruption. This is detrimental to both our democracy and the public’s faith in our government.”

The Foreign Emoluments Clause prohibits the president from receiving, among other things, profit, gain or advantage from foreign governments without the consent of Congress. The Domestic Emoluments Clause prevents the president from receiving under any circumstances profit, gain or advantage from the federal government, outside of their government salary and benefits, or from the individual states. These violations threaten to undermine our domestic policy and national security.

During Donald Trump’s first term, CREW tracked more than 3,700 conflicts of interest, as politicians, foreign governments and special interest groups sought access to both him and his administration by spending money at Trump properties. CREW estimated that as many as 30 special interest groups received favorable policy outcomes from the Trump administration after hosting an event at a Trump property and that Trump’s companies earned at least  $13.6 million in payments from foreign governments. Additionally, during his time in office, 143 members of Congress visited Trump properties.

“The American people should be able to count on Donald Trump to act in their interest and the country’s during his next term in office, not to benefit his own bottom line,” said Bookbinder. “Only if he divests his businesses now can they have that kind of confidence in him.”

Click here to read the letter.

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