Rush Limbaugh praises Trump's decision to hold the G-7 at his own resort: “Trump is offering it”
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Rush Limbaugh praises Trump's decision to hold the G-7 at his own resort
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From the October 17 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show
RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): I got an email. “Dear Mr. Limbaugh, could you explain this emoluments thing? It sounds like a toothpaste.” This is not a bad question. The left and the media constantly, “He’s violating the emoluments clause.” Let me explain this to you very simply.
The way to look at the emoluments clause is to ask a question. Is Trump being given a present by hosting the G-7 at his Doral resort in Miami? A present. Think of a gift as a substitute word for emolument, an office or a title from any king or prince or foreign state. No. He’s not being given a present. He’s not getting any kind of a gift by hosting the G-7 at his golf club. Nobody’s trying to bribe him by coming to Doral or any of his other properties. That’s not what’s going here.
“But but but but he’s profiting, he’s personally profiting, it’s his own --” no. He’s announced that everything is going to be at cost. The government will pay only what it costs to put the event on. There will not be any evil profit. Now, as is always the case, go back to the original intent. Go back to the framers, go back to the early days of the country and ask why was this clause even put in there? Why was the emoluments clause even included?
And if you go back to the founding of the country, it makes perfect sense. Let’s say that the king of England had offered George Washington a dukedom, you know, make him duke of the new world, give him a bunch of land, a bunch of real estate, do with it what he wants, and he and his family would have been wealthy forever. It would have been a bribe.
Instead of doing the revolution, instead of going to war against the king, the king says, “I’ll buy you off here. I’ll give you the dukedom. We’ll call you the duke of Washington.” The framers wanted to prevent that kind of thing. And it has no application. The media and the Democrats are running with it to include anything that might be configurable in people’s minds as Trump engineering profit based on his presidency.
So they’re trying to say, “Well, that place would never be used. There would never be a G-7 there if Trump wasn’t president. Therefore, he’s guilty.” It may in fact be true, but Trump is offering it. You know, Trump is a great entertainer. And Trump is proud of what he’s achieved. And it’s no different than if you had built a new house and you want your family to come see it. Like say you build a new house and you invite the whole family in for Thanksgiving or Christmas. You’re proud of it, you have an achievement, you want to show it off, you know that some family members are going to be jealous as hell, and that’s part of the fun of it too.
But Trump loves entertaining people. It’s one of the things that he excels at, does well. He loves people having a good time. It’s a venue that he can totally control. He can totally control the quality of it. He can totally control the employment and the people that are coming in and out. They’re going to try to make it look like he’s profiting and they’re going to say, “You can’t criticize the Bidens now, Mr. President, you just can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t do it.” And Mulvaney said, no, it’s not gonna stop us. We got this handled. Don’t sweat it.