An attorney for President-elect Donald Trump said at a press conference Wednesday that profits from foreign governments at Trump Organization hotels will be donated to the United States Treasury.
Trump’s attorney Sheri Dillon addressed the emoluments clause of the Constitution which prohibits anyone holding office from receiving a gift from “any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
“The so-called emoluments clause has never been interpreted to apply to fair value exchanges that have absolutely nothing to do with an office holder. No one would have thought when the Constitution was written that paying your hotel bill was an emolument. Instead it would have been thought of as a value or an exchange, not a gift, not a title, and not an emolument,” Dillon, an attorney at Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius, said.
She added, “But since President-elect Trump has been elected, some people want to define emoluments to cover routine business transactions, like paying for hotel rooms. These people are wrong.”
She said that the Constitution doesn’t require Trump to change anything to comply with this clause but “just like with conflicts of interests, he wants to do more than what the constitution requires.”
“President-elect Trump decided and we are announcing today he’ll voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the United States Treasury. This way, it is the American people who will profit,” Dillon said.