Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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Article VI of the United States Constitution states that “all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land.”
Article I, Section 9 states that “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.”
Recently, President Donald Trump canceled plans to host the 2020 Group of 7 Summit at one of his for-profit properties in Florida, and he referred to the “phony emoluments clause” as one of the reasons for abandoning that location.
When the president refers to a venerable provision of the Constitution as “phony,” he is using his position to attempt to delegitimize the provision and to place himself above “the supreme Law of the Land.”
This is an abuse of presidential authority and insults the memory of those who died to protect America’s fundamental values. It provides more damning evidence to justify not only Trump’s impeachment by the House of Representatives, but his conviction by the Senate and his removal from the office.
