When Donald Trump took his oath of office he swore to "preserve, protect and defend"

Echo opinion to the Editor of the Illinois Northwest Herald:

While speaking recently to reporters before a televised cabinet meeting, Donald Trump displayed anger, resentment and disbelief over having to cancel his plans to hold the G-7 meeting of world leaders at Doral, his private, for-profit club. 

In fact, Trump was irate and scornfully dismissive that anyone would even suggest he would have profited from this event. In his typically nonsensical manner, he sneered, “You people with this phony emoluments clause!”

That pesky emoluments clause of the Constitution is Article I, Section 9, Clause 8: “[N]o person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” It couples with an Article II restriction barring the president from receiving “any other Emolument” other than a fixed salary from federal or state governments.

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In short, presidents are explicitly barred from accepting things of value from either foreign governments or our own, because doing so would obviously be extremely very corrupt.

It would seem someone in the White House, perhaps one of his numerous attorneys, could have schooled him on the “phony” emoluments clause. That he wasn’t aware seems to contradict his recent tweet: “What you have now, so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius!”

Or, he really does believe our laws don’t apply to him.

In short, presidents are explicitly barred from accepting things of value from either foreign governments or our own, because doing so would obviously be extremely very corrupt.

It would seem someone in the White House, perhaps one of his numerous attorneys, could have schooled him on the “phony” emoluments clause. That he wasn’t aware seems to contradict his recent tweet: “What you have now, so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius!”

Or, he really does believe our laws don’t apply to him.

If Trump believes the Constitution or parts of it are “phony” and therefore shouldn’t apply to him, was the oath he swore to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution also phony?

Helen Torscher Crystal Lake, Illinois