What other goodies did Trump steal?

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1562881995566645248.html

If Trump's theory for keeping top-secret official government documents is that they actually belong to him personally, then it's highly likely that he's also keeping foreign gifts as souvenirs. 🧵
Unroll available on Thread Reader

Per the Foreign Emoluments Clause, "no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the US], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." Const. art. I, s9 +
As @FSFP and others noted back in 2016-17, Trump's foreign business entanglements & refusal to divest his businesses meant that he'd continue to benefit from foreign govt payments in violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause.
freespeechforpeople.org/if-discovered-…

But this is more basic. +

Ron Fein to American Constitution Society: “If Discovered, He May Be Impeached” - Free Speech For People
Ron Fein, Free Speech For People's Legal Director outlined President Trump's ongoing violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause in a recent blog posting to the American Constitution Society For Law An…
https://freespeechforpeople.org/if-discovered-may-be-impeachedb

A POTUS regularly receives "gifts" from foreign emissaries. Some of this is cool stuff like swords, sculptures, and ceremonial daggers. Ethiopia gave Teddy Roosevelt a live lion; Argentina gave GW Bush 300 lbs of raw lamb; the UK gave LBJ a Burberry coat. Cool stuff! +

Most people would want to keep at least some of this stuff.

But POTUS can't, because of the Foreign Emoluments Clause. +

When POTUS or any other federal official receives a gift from a foreign emissary, they're required to transfer it to US government custody. Congress wrote a whole law about this (5 USC 7342), and it expressly applies to POTUS. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/… n

See also 5 USC 7353, which doesn't specifically call out POTUS, but if you read the text closely, it applies to "an individual holding an ... elective position in the executive ... branch of Government," which is POTUS & VP. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/… +

These laws are entirely separate from the question of whether the gift constituted a bribe. Most often it isn't. The point is, if a foreign gov't presents a gift to POTUS, it belongs to the American people -- not POTUS personally. +

(Side note: you might ask, what the heck is the United States government going to do with a sword, a live effing lion, 300 lbs of raw lamb, and a Burberry coat? They're usually given to the National Archives or to a zoo, as appropriate.) +

(In 1972, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai gave Richard Nixon two live pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing. He gave them to the National Zoo. In return, we gave China a pair of musk oxen.
Bulgaria gave GW Bush a puppy; he sent it to the Nat'l Archives, which placed it with a family.) +

So the scenario is: MBS or MBZ or whoever gave Trump a cool sword. Under 5 USC 7342, he could play with it for 60 days--this is legit, he had the legal right to play with the sword for 60 days--but then he had to hand it over to the gov't.

Do you think Trump handed it over? +

In fact, the U.S. government doesn't even know what foreign government gifts Trump received! The House Oversight Committee is not pleased about this. reuters.com/world/us/us-ho… +

U.S. House panel probes Trump's accounting of foreign gifts
The U.S. House of Representatives' Oversight Committee said on Tuesday it had opened an investigation into what it called former President Donald Trump's failure to account for gifts received from for…
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-panel-probes-trumps-accounting-foreign-gifts-2022-06-07/

If Trump thinks that official government documents (nuclear secrets or whatever) are "mine," then he 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 thinks that all the cool freebies given to him by foreign govts are "mine mine mine."

But they belong to us, the American people, not him! +

In conclusion, there's probably a ton of cool stuff hidden at Mar-a-Lago -- swords, daggers, glowing orbs, paintings, statutes, maybe some lamb in the freezer -- that Trump stole from the American public, and the government doesn't even know what's missing. /end @FSFP
• • •

[SWBTATTReg]

1. They raided the place, I wonder if they bothered to look around, examine some of their

surroundings for various items that perhaps constituted a gift from a foreign leader?

[justhanginon]

2. Probably took postage stamps, light bulbs and toilet paper too. Cheap bastard!

[DURHAM D]

4. and zip drives

[DURHAM D]

3. They took a bust of Lincoln.

Google it. The Trumpers said they would take it to a museum.

I would like to see confirmation of its return.

[MOMFUDSKI]

5. It is not so much what he stole but

what the son-in-law SOLD. I hope our intel has the goods.

[global1]

6. Where's The Soccer Ball Putin Gave TFG?.....nt

[rickford66]

7. What if he was given a copy of the Pee Tape ?

[dalton99a]

8. Kick