Photo by Tumisu
By Melvin A. Goodman, 
Burying The Hatch Act
Trump’s war on government ethics continues unabated. The outrageous events at the Republican Convention last month provided more evidence that there is no law or tradition or custom that Donald Trump is unwilling to break. The violations of the Hatch Act, the anti-corruption law that Congress passed in 1939, are particularly stunning because the act prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities “in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties by an individual employed or holding office in the Government of the United States.”
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared at the convention in a prerecorded video filmed during an official trip to Jerusalem. This marked a violation of the Hatch Act’s prohibition against government officials taking part in partisan politics as well as the State Department policy that Pompeo approved this year to forbid Senate-confirmed political appointees from even attending a “political party convention or convention-related event.”
- Trump himself formally accepted the Republican nomination for president on the South Lawn of the White House and, although the president is immune from the Hatch Act, no other president exploited the use of the White House in such fashion.
- The most mawkish display at the convention was the film of Trump and Chad Wolf, the Acting Director of Department of Homeland Security, overseeing the naturalization of five immigrants, as new American citizens. It would be difficult to name two principal officials who have done more to make life difficult for immigrants and immigration than Trump and Wolf, although the name of Steve Miller does come to mind.
The Untouchables
When these matters were brought to the attention of Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, he responded that “Nobody outside of the Beltway really cares.” Once again, Trump himself said it best during his acceptance speech, when he said that “We’re here, they’re not,” which suggested that no one could stop his antics.
Shameful Interview
Not long after the convention, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos joined the brigade of violators of the Hatch Act by making a sharp criticism of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Fox News.
- DeVos crossed a line in an interview on Fox News when she called Biden “shameful,” which is campaign rhetoric. The interview discussed the campaign and had nothing to do with her duties as a cabinet secretary. Moreover, the Department of Education then included a link to the interview in an email titled “Important Updates from U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.”
- In the interview, DeVos charged that Biden “turned his face in favor of the teachers union…and what they have to demand and it’s really shameful.”
A Lost Clause
Trump’s violations of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution are similarly striking. He has visited his own properties 271 times as President, which has brought the Trump Organization a stream of private revenue from federal agencies, GOP campaign groups, and foreign governments. He once joked that he could be the first presidential candidate to make money running for president. Well, he has certainly made a great deal of money as President. On the campaign trail, Trump stated that he simply wouldn’t visit his properties as President of the United States, which was, of course, observed in the breach.
- Trump and the Republican Party have steered about $4 million into Trump family businesses since 2019, including his club at Mar-a-Lago; lavish donor retreats at Trump hotels; office space in Trump Tower; and thousands of dollars at the steakhouse in Trump’s Washington, D.C. hotel.
- Federal spending records show that taxpayers have paid Trump’s businesses more than $900,000 since he took office. Most of this amount came as a result of the President’s travel.
- When Trump spent two nights at his resort in Scotland in 2018, the Secret Service was levied an additional “furniture removal charge” of $1,300 plus tax because it requested some items to be removed from various rooms.
- The profits from a vast, big-spending presidential entourage is an interesting contrast to President Jimmy Carter who put his peanut farm into a blind trust before he was inaugurated, and officially sold it when he left the office in 1981.