We begin today’s roundup with The New York Times editorial on Donald Trump’s plans to continue to profit off of the presidency:
The Doral golf resort near Miami has been struggling ever since its owner, Donald Trump, kicked off his bid for the presidency. In the span of two years, its net operating income fell by almost 70 percent. Maybe that’s why what passes for presidential diplomacy these days includes this pitch, made by Mr. Trump just after the Group of 7 summit in Biarritz, France, on Monday [to host the next G7 summit at his resort].
It’s not hard to imagine why the president would be tempted to throw his Miami property a little extra business. A high-profile global gathering could give the resort’s bottom line a much-needed boost.
Here’s Jonathan Bernstein’s take at Bloomberg:
That Trump is using the presidency for personal gain is bad. That he’s willing to at least encourage the appearance of flat-out bribery – suggesting that he’ll favor those who stay at his hotels and otherwise enrich him – undermines the idea of constitutional government.
Perhaps worse is the blatant lawlessness. Trump’s job, of course, is to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” And yet he proceeds as if the emolument clauses of the Constitution simply don’t exist. For the president to get away with this kind of thing just because he can promotes contempt for the entire concept of the rule of law.
Ryan Cooper at The Week argues that such profiting off the presidency presents a clear impeachable offense:
This is part of a pattern — Trump hasn't just proposed stuffing huge sacks of cash from foreign states and the U.S. government into his own pockets, he's actually done it. This profiteering off the presidency is the simplest reason he should be impeached immediately. He is violating the Constitution and picking the pockets of the American people to enrich himself. It's an open-and-shut case.
On the topic of the FEC, Matt Steib notes that it’s effectively being sidelined:
With only three remaining vice-chairs, the FEC no longer has its four-commissioner quorum, and will not be able to conduct meetings or properly enforce election laws in 2020, or punish campaigns for any violations.
When operating as intended, there are six FEC commissioners, who determine the ins and outs of campaign-finance regulation. But because the president has left at least one commissioner’s seat empty for over two years, the agency is running on fumes, like so many other limbs of government...
Back to the G7, Peter Nicholas examines the lack of U.S. leadership at the summit:
The most striking photograph to emerge from the G7 summit meeting in Biarritz, France, is one of an empty chair.
It’s the seat that President Donald Trump was supposed to occupy during a meeting today where world leaders talked about climate trends that could render parts of the planet uninhabitable if left unchecked.
Trump skipped it.
The White House put out a statement that Trump was busy talking to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and couldn’t make it—though both of those leaders found time to show up for the session. No one waited for Trump; the leaders of the world’s most economically advanced democratic nations went ahead despite his absence.
And on the topic of a primary challenge to Trump, don’t miss this piece by Republican Stuart Stevens at USA Today:
...Republicans need an active, robust primary. The 2020 Republican primary is the definitional moment for the Republican Party for a generation or longer. We know who Trump is; the question for Republicans is who are we? Do we believe character doesn’t count, that the national debt is meaningless, that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (a man with American blood on his hands) is a “friend,” and that after decades of arguing that culture defines the soul of America, a president paying off a porn star is of no consequence?
A vote in the primary for Trump is to endorse all of the above. Arguing that you will vote for Trump because of judges but don’t approve of him saying he couldn’t have raped a woman because “she's not my type” is a childish rationalization. It’s like boarding a plane and saying you approve of where the first 10 rows are going but don’t approve of where the rest of the plane is landing. It’s one plane. You board it willingly and knowingly, or you get on a different plane.