The Brennan Center – “To prevent corruption, the Constitution prohibits the president and other officials from receiving untoward benefits. Congress, however, must take action to enable enforcement. A number of President Donald Trump’s actions in his second term potentially violate the Constitution’s Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses. These clauses bar the president and other federal officials from receiving emoluments — meaning benefits or advantages — from foreign governments and, in the case of the president, the federal and state governments. They are among the United States’ oldest explicit anticorruption safeguards and the only ones written directly into the Constitution. Before Trump’s first term, these provisions rarely received significant public attention. But that changed when Trump took office in 2017 and declined to meaningfully divest from his extensive business holdings, including hotels and other properties around the world that received patronage and other sizable benefits from foreign governments and U.S. state officials. The apparent violations of the Emoluments Clauses prompted several lawsuits against the president, all of which foundered on procedural grounds and were later dismissed after he left office. The failure of these legal actions reinforces the need for legislation and other congressional actions to clearly articulate which benefits are prohibited and who can enforce against violations. Now, in Trump’s second term, the need for congressional action has never been clearer. The president’s business entanglements have considerably expanded since his first term, including his burgeoning cryptocurrency empire and a host of new real estate deals in the Middle East and other parts of the world. More than any of his recent predecessors, he has also adopted an explicitly transactional approach to governing, one that melds his political identity as the U.S. president with his personal business interests. This is possible in large part because presidents are exempt from many federal laws against corruption…”