John,

If Donald Trump serves a second term as president of the United States and fails to divest from his businesses, he will once again violate the Constitution’s Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses.

To be in compliance with the Constitution, before taking office, Trump must fully divest himself from businesses receiving benefits from foreign or domestic governments—but he hasn’t before, and he has given no indication that he will do so if elected this November.

We’ll break down the Emoluments Clause a bit more below, but I’m asking you to take action first. Donald Trump has broken the law *many* times, and we believe that he shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. If you agree, I’m asking you to support CREW’s work to hold Trump accountable and defend the Constitution. →

The framers of our Constitution didn’t want a president’s loyalty to be compromised by personal financial interests, so they included the Emoluments Clauses in the Constitution to prohibit financial conflicts of interest by sitting presidents and other government officials.

– The Foreign Emoluments clause bars the president from receiving payments, profits, gains or advantages from foreign governments, without the consent of Congress.
– The Domestic Emoluments clause bars the president from payments, profits, gains or advantages from the federal government itself or the individual states, outside of his or her government salary and benefits.

But during his term as president, Donald Trump never sought or received permission from Congress to accept foreign emoluments that came from payments to his businesses, and he didn’t divest from his business to prevent the acceptance of domestic emoluments.

Former President Trump’s tax returns revealed that he and his businesses received up to $160 million from foreign sources while he served in government. These illegal emoluments include millions from dozens of foreign governments, including at least $5.5 million from the Chinese government alone.

In a second term, the scale of Trump’s abuse of these anti-corruption laws would only increase.

Trump’s businesses are poised to receive millions of dollars in constitutionally prohibited payments during a potential second term:

• Trump is the majority stakeholder of the publicly traded Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of social media platform Truth Social. Trump becomes eligible to sell his holdings of TMTG stock as soon as September 20. Any substantial purchase of that stock by foreign or domestic governments while Trump holds a significant number of shares would raise emoluments concerns.
• CREW’s research of the public record indicates that five foreign governments would pay Trump’s business a total of nearly $2 million in monthly fees for units in New York’s Trump World Tower during a potential second term. The Saudi-funded LIV Golf league has hosted six events at Trump clubs since Trump left office. LIV Golf may continue to pay Trump businesses to host golf tournaments during a potential second term.
• Since 2021, the Trump Organization has signed three new agreements with an international developer for Trump-branded developments in Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These projects may receive significant benefits from these governments during a potential second Trump presidential term.

In spite of Trump’s efforts to avoid transparency, publicly available records reveal a mountain of violations of the Emoluments Clauses from his first term that would likely increase in a second one.

John, Trump has got away with violating the law for far too long. We believe it’s time to hold him accountable, and we need your help to do it.

Please make a donation to CREW today to support our work to defend the Constitution and hold Donald Trump accountable →

Thank you,

Virginia Canter
Chief Ethics Counsel
CREW