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.

Nancy Pelosi orders impeachment probe: ‘No one is above the law’

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 

Donald Trump again gives Congress a reason why he must be impeached

Echo opinion letter published in the Florida newspaper Bradenton Herald

https://www.bradenton.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article236401143.html

FLORIDA- The authors who were framers of the Constitution were very clear that they did not want a monarchy, and they did not want people benefiting personally from their offices. For the latter, they established the “emoluments clause.” This clause says, in part, “no 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.” An emolument is defined as “a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office.”

Title of Nobility Clause is a provision in Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, that prohibits the federal government from granting titles of nobility, and restricts members of the government from receiving gifts...

The emoluments clause is why every other president has released their tax returns, so that the American public can see where their money is coming from and Congress can make sure they are not personally benefiting. This president has refused to do so. It is also why every other president has divested themselves of their business or put it in a blind trust. This prevents them from being susceptible to influence. This president has refused to do that. He has, allegedly, turned over the running of his hotels, golf clubs, and casinos to his children, but he still keeps a close eye on them.

A violation of the emoluments clause ...
violating Trump's oath of office.

The fact that Trump’s businesses are profiting from foreign dignitaries and representatives (and even the military and U.S. representatives abroad) has been raised as an issue several times. Now he is being so bold as to declare that the next G7 meeting will be held at his Miami resort. This is a violation of the emoluments clause and should be an impeachable offense. Congress needs to do their job and check the actions of this president. He is clearly violating his oath of office.

From Jenni Casale in Palmetto Florida

Evidence about why I dislike Donald Trump- because he is a terrible person and failed leader

An echo opinion letter published in the Iowa newspaper Quad-City Times:  

Damning text messages detail Trump pressure on Ukraine

On the front page of the Quad-City Times (Sept. 26), Sen. Chuck Grassley said the impeachment of our troubled president is only sought by Trump haters. (Senator Grassley has abandoned his oath of office.  "I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;" https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Feature_Homepage_TheOathWeTake.htm

I wrote the senator that my "dislike" of Mr. Trump had been earned by his actions and words. Examples of his behavior I listed were:

• Endangering our national security by alienating our main allies and embracing our main enemy, Russia;
• Mocking a national war hero, John McCain, and a handicapped reporter and Gold Star parents;
• Bragging about his many sexual assaults on women;
• Telling more than 12,000 lies since taking office (not yet 3 years);
• Not helping with, but contributing to, the climate change crisis, the number one issue of our life-time;

• Using his office to daily violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution;

• Using the office to try to undermine a political rival with a foreign government under extreme stress from our main enemy, Russia.

There are at least 10 more reasons I have "dislike" for Mr. Trump, I wrote.

So I concluded: "Senator, open your eyes to the corruption all around you in this administration. Or are you simply a part of that corruption?"

Don Moeller, Davenport Iowa

Resistance Alert! Mueller is looking at Donald Trump

An echo essay written by Heather Cox Richardson, published on Facebook and in the History News Network newsletter.

It feels like things are starting to happen. 

Heather Cox Richardson 

Heather Cox Richardson is a professor of ​history at Boston College and co-​host of NPR's politics and history podcast Freak Out and Carry On and co-editor of We're History.

Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, is negotiating to interview Donald Trump himself. Mueller's interest in the pond's biggest fish suggests that his investigation is in its final stages. And Trump's sudden, angry tweets and other legal moves designed to shore up his base suggest that he knows the net is tightening, and he is trying to get out of it either by claiming the president is above the law, or by discrediting the legal process. Either one of these approaches will make bad trouble over the next few months.

None of us knows what cards Mueller is holding, but the indictments handed down so far by the grand jury have suggested that he knows a whole lot more than what is showing up in the news. The February indictment of 13 Russian nationals, for example, was remarkable. In it, on page 24, was the news that American investigators had actually read the private personal emails of some of the Russians involved in disrupting the American election. That extraordinary reach, plus the fact that the government now has the potential ability to read everything Trump's fixer Michael Cohen had in his possession, plus the fact that it seems clear that a number of key players on Trump's team have flipped to cooperate with Mueller's investigation, means that anyone who cooperated with Russians in any illegal scheme must be very nervous right now. 

Trump is showing signs of fear. He has followed up last week's unhinged call to Fox & Friends with a number of frantic tweets, and his legal team has made some interesting lunges in the past two days.

Those efforts fall into two categories, and neither is good. 

First, Trump has begun to sound like he wants dictatorial powers. Today his lawyers tried to get a case accusing him of violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution dismissed, arguing that the president has "absolute immunity" from lawsuits (courts have denied this immunity). Trump has also tweeted that he has "unfettered power" to fire anyone in the Executive Branch (this is not true), and that he might have to "use the powers granted to the Presidency" to shut down Mueller's investigation (this is an overreach).

Second, Trump and his people are clearly trying to discredit the investigation and the media that publicizes it. Yesterday, Trump was scathing about the "disgraceful" leaks of questions Mueller wanted to ask of him, only to have it seem increasingly likely that the leaks had actually come from his own camp precisely so he could discredit Mueller's team. The words "Russia witch hunt," heard so often from the president, today became the official statement of the White House upon the hiring of Emmet Flood, an impeachment lawyer. Trump's attacks on the media are ratcheting up, and he is appealing to the worst in his base, as witnessed by his extraordinary speech on Saturday night.

It seems likely that Trump sees that he will have to testify in front of the grand jury one way or another, but he will probably have to take the Fifth-- to refuse to answer questions on the grounds that it might incriminate him-- and then will try to skate by insisting that he refused to testify because the investigation is tainted. He is banking that his supporters will back him up.

The twists and turns of politics today are enough to exhaust anyone. But hang in there, because stepping back to look at the whole picture shows that this moment is a crisis for American democracy, perhaps THE crisis for American democracy.

This nation was founded on the principle that all men are equal before the law. While that principle has often fallen down in practice, we have never denied the principle; we have never set up certain men to be above the rules by which the rest of us live. That is precisely what Trump is trying to get us to do. And if we lose that principle, we lose our democracy. We become a nation of castes, an oligarchy in which certain of us are better than others.

In the coming months, when the fight over whether or not Trump has committed crimes becomes a vicious tug of war, it will be important to remember that what is at stake is not the future of Donald Trump, who is, after all, only one man-- and a pathetic figure of a man at that-- but the very principle on which this nation stands.

The primary question over the next few months is not "Is Donald Trump guilty of a crime?" but rather "Should any American be above the law?" 

On that question hangs no less than the fate of our country.