Trump’s Lavish Gift For Visiting Japan PM Raises Some Ethical Concerns (Again)

[corbe]

Trump’s Lavish Gift For Visiting Japan PM Raises Some Ethical Concerns (Again)

Posted at 4:30 pm on February 10, 2017 by Susan Wright


What we do know about our new president is that he doesn’t give two squats about appearances or potential conflicts of interest.

He also doesn’t know how to be an executive politician, sticking to the ethical rules to avoid the dust-ups that we all know are coming.

According to McClatchydc.com, President Trump will be hosting Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida when the prime minister visits this weekend.

“That is a gift that the president is extending to the prime minister,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in response to questions about the ethical dilemma of having a world leader stay at one of the Trump hotels.

“President Trump should not be giving personal gifts of significant financial value to foreign leaders, and President Trump should be avoiding even the appearance that he is using public office to promote his personal financial interests,” said John Wonderlich, executive editor of the Sunlight Foundation, which pushes for government openness. “By giving Prime Minister Abe a free stay at Mar-a-Lago, he is promoting his commercial brand, and flouting the ethics standards he was elected, in part, to uphold.”

Only Abe – no other member of the Japanese delegation – will be staying at Mar-a-Lago, Spicer said. “They will stay out in town with the rest of the staff,” he said.

So does that lessen the queasy feeling that some ethicists may be feeling?

It’s different from what Trump declared before being sworn in as president, and it creates an issue, even if Trump says he will foot the bill, himself.

One of Trump’s pledges was that he would donate profits from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury.

That seems to be one of those magical, disappearing Trump promises, at this point.

It may also create a situation where one could accuse a sitting U.S. president with attempting to bribe a foreign leader.

Trump aides did not say whether they took other countries’ standards into consideration in developing the new policy. Japanese officials did not respond to requests for comment, but gifts valued at more than $45 generally must be reported, according to a United Nations report on corruption.

“President Trump’s payment for the Japanese prime minister’s visit to Mar-a-Lago illustrates the tricky ethics bind that the president has put himself in by refusing to divest from his businesses,” said Paul Seamus Ryan, a vice president at Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “On the one hand, if the Japanese prime minister had paid for his visit to the Trump-owned property, President Trump would arguably be violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause. . . . On the other hand, President Trump paying for the Japanese prime minister’s visit raises the specter of impropriety. Might President Trump be attempting to curry favor with the prime minister for some personal business reasons, or for foreign policy reasons?”

Abe was scheduled to arrive today, then travel to Florida to stay at the resort, and also to play a round of golf.

Norman Eisen, an ethics lawyer who served under President Obama stated that this will serve as a global infomercial for Mar-a-Lago.

He could be right.

Mar-a-Lago recently raised its initiation fee from $100,000 to $200,000. The annual dues are $14,000, and Abe’s night’s stay (assuming he only stays a night) is going to cost about $2,000.

<..snip..>

http://www.redstate.com/sweetie15/2017/02/10/trumps-lavish-gift-visiting-japan-pm-raises-ethical-concerns/

[Right_in_Virginia]

Is the "lavish gift" extending an invitation to his home in Florida?

[Norm Lenhart]

Not sure what the problem is. A world leader is going to be put in a high dollar facility no matter where he goes. Trumps place already has Secret Service there so that should be a consideration as well.

[skeeter]

Oh brother.

Are these people going to yap for all four years?

[beandog]

Wait a minute.  He's giving someone a free stay at a place he owns, unlike a lot of Presidents who sell a stay at the White House, a property they don't own.  How dare he give something away instead of selling it.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Wait a minute.  He's giving someone a free stay at a place he owns, unlike a lot of Presidents who sell a stay at the White House, a property they don't own.  How dare he give something away instead of selling it.

Didn't GWB have the Putins to his ranch for a weekend?

[beandog]

I believe you are correct.  I remember a picture of the two of them.  Of course you do know that you're going to here the new slogan "two wrongs don't make a right".  I guess it's better when like the Bamster you let other people pay for your vacation.

This has gotten very tedious.

[Norm Lenhart]

Didn't GWB have the Putins to his ranch for a weekend?

Pretty much every president/most at least in the last century have hosted world leaders at their residences/properties.

[corbe]

   I thought this was what Camp David was for, didn't Ike put a golf course up there?

[Norm Lenhart]

   I thought this was what Camp David was for, didn't Ike put a golf course up there?

Sure but there's no reason that CD HAS to be the only option.

[Wingnut]

   I thought this was what Camp David was for, didn't Ike put a golf course up there?

WTH wants to go to Camp David in Feb.   What are they gonna do....play snow golf?

[corbe]

   Putin did stay overnight in Crawford.

The Putins were spending the night in the ranch's guest house, built during the presidential campaign alongside the new one-story main house. Bush interrupted the visit to duck into a two-car garage and tell reporters that eight foreign aid workers held by the Taliban, including two from nearby Waco, Texas, had been picked up by U.S. forces and brought out of Afghanistan.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2001/11/15/bush-putin-tour-texas-ranch-by-pickup-truck-talk-missile-defense.html

[corbe]

WTH wants to go to Camp David in Feb.   What are they gonna do....play snow golf?

   You've got a point there, sunny Florida any day of the week!

[geronl]

   I thought this was what Camp David was for, didn't Ike put a golf course up there?

The Blair House

[corbe]

Mar-a-Lago recently raised its initiation fee from $100,000 to $200,000. The annual dues are $14,000, and Abe’s night’s stay (assuming he only stays a night) is going to cost about $2,000.

By charging initiation fees and annual dues, this shows that Mar-a-Lago is not a home, but a business enterprise.  Therefore, this is no different that if Trump paid for Abe to stay at the Ritz-Carleton.

   I'd bet there's a waiting list a mile long to get 'IN' there, all the movers and shakers of the world want a seat at 'that' table, it's not on the scale of hellary and her state dept, but it reeks.

[TomSea]

More gems from Susan Wright and folks are putting down the WND?

[corbe]

More gems from Susan Wright and folks are putting down the WND?

   What in the Article do you want to Debate, @TomSea do you really believe the US Gov is not gonna get an (inflated) bill for all this hospitality and Trump's winter white house won't make out like a bandit with all this 'free advertising', help me out here?

[EC]

I'm not seeing the problem. 

Trump lives there (part of the time, anyways) so it may be considered his home.
There is going to be no money changing hands for Abe to stay there, therefore there is no monetary gain being made.
There is a waiting list to join, so any publicity gained is going to be fleeting at best.

Where's the beef?

[Frandia]

Let's call out the militia.  Good grief is there anything snowflakes don't whine about. 

[EC]

Heyo, @Abe. Tell us how the stay is, eh? 

(Sorry, couldn't resist. Prolly should have.)

[Frandia]

Not sure what the problem is. A world leader is going to be put in a high dollar facility no matter where he goes. Trumps place already has Secret Service there so that should be a consideration as well.

Not only that he saves the taxpayers money. How dare he.  This "promoting his brand bullcrap" is just that...bullcrap.  Like Trump needs to promote his name.

“By giving Prime Minister Abe a free stay at Mar-a-Lago, he is promoting his commercial brand, and flouting the ethics standards he was elected, in part, to uphold.”

Only Abe – no other member of the Japanese delegation – will be staying at Mar-a-Lago, Spicer said. “They will stay out in town with the rest of the staff,” he said.

[Right_in_Virginia]

“By giving Prime Minister Abe a free stay at Mar-a-Lago, he is promoting his commercial brand, and flouting the ethics standards he was elected, in part, to uphold.” 

Mar-a-Lago is not Trump's commercial brand.  The name of the property was given by the original builder and owner in the 1920s.  It is now consider a National Historic Landmark.

The President's commercial brand is "Trump".

[txradioguy]

Is the "lavish gift" extending an invitation to his home in Florida?

His home is in NYC...thisbis a private club with a fancy golf course staffed with seasonally hired foreign workers that he owns in Florida.

If he wanted to host PM Abe in his "home" ..well that's the WH or his suite at Trump Tower in NYC.

There is a Presidential retreat called Camp David that is to be used for stuff like this.

[txradioguy]

Oh brother.

Are these people going to yap for all four years?

You want people to point this out and hopefully put a stop to it now...or wait til the Dems try to use it to build an impeachment case against him.

And before you laugh that off...know that the Dems have been looking for revenge for Clinton's impeachment since it happened.

They couldn't get W even though they made a lot of noise about it there was never the legal hook to go forward.

Trump is giving the  grist for the mill.

You should be more concerned with that...snd worried that Trump doesn't seem to care...instead of whether this is petty bickering or not.

[Chosen Daughter]

Mar-a-Lago recently raised its initiation fee from $100,000 to $200,000. The annual dues are $14,000, and Abe’s night’s stay (assuming he only stays a night) is going to cost about $2,000.

By charging initiation fees and annual dues, this shows that Mar-a-Lago is not a home, but a business enterprise.  Therefore, this is no different that if Trump paid for Abe to stay at the Ritz-Carleton.

Exactly and that is why it is a conflict of interest.  Other Presidents were inviting them to their personal homes.