Jamie Raskin Highlights Trump’s Self-Enrichment In Possible Impeachment Preview

WASHINGTON ― Two symbolic resolutions introduced Thursday by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) highlight President Donald Trump’s apparent use of the presidency to enrich himself, suggesting an angle Democrats could pursue in an impeachment investigation if they take back control of the House of Representatives next year.

One “sense of the House” resolution criticizes Trump for his family’s receipt of a $500 million investment in their cryptocurrency company from a United Arab Emirates royal family that subsequently won access to advanced AI technology, despite worries it could be transferred to China.

The other resolution targets the president’s lawsuit against the U.S. government seeking $10 billion in damages over leaks of the president’s tax information, as well as his administrative claim for millions from the Justice Department for its search of his Florida golf club.

“Trump has bulldozed part of the White House and turned what’s left of it into a money-making operation for himself and his family,” Raskin said in a statement.

Neither resolution stands a chance of being adopted or even voted on by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. But they are potential starting points for investigations into Trump if Democrats win control of the House of Representatives, which would put Raskin in charge of the House Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee typically takes the lead in impeachment investigations. (Raskin did not mention impeachment in his statement.)

Party leaders have mostly avoided talking about impeaching Trump, though the president himself and Republicans in Congress have described it as a likely scenario in a Democrat-controlled House. (Many Democrats said Trump’s recent statements, including his threat to annihilate a “whole civilization” in Iran, were evidence he’d lost his mind and should be removed from office under the 25th Amendment.)

As for Trump’s potential receipt of millions from overseas royalty and his legal demand for billions from the U.S. government, Raskin said both are contrary to the U.S. Constitution’s ban on “emoluments,” or payments, separate from the president’s regular salary.

“Every other president got that basic point. Only Donald Trump has turned the presidency into a for-profit enterprise,” Raskin said.

Trump is the first president not to separate himself from his private businesses upon taking office. In 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear legal challenges to Trump’s receipt of outside income during his first term, saying the cases were moot because Trump was no longer president.

During Joe Biden’s presidency, Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry to investigate whether Biden had participated in a conspiracy “to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family.” The inquiry fizzled without a House vote after some of the Republicans’ most damning evidence against Biden turned out to have been fabricated.