Presidents and Their Golf Courses Shouldn’t Get Bailout Money
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
Note: The Trump Organization has applied for bailout money from Ireland and Scotland to help cover salaries for employees at three golf resorts.
There’s nothing wrong with U.S.-owned golf courses and resorts taking advantage of appropriate European policies – superior to those in the U.S.– to maintain workers on the payroll. Unless those businesses are owned by the president of the U.S., in which case accepting those payments would violate the Constitution. It is exactly to avoid such problems that Donald Trump should have divested himself of his business interests before he was sworn in as president.
If you’re a government official in Scotland or Ireland, how exactly are you supposed to handle such a request? And how might receiving grants from governments in those countries affect the policies of the Trump administration? These are questions that shouldn’t have to be asked, because Trump has no business still owning his global empire.