Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano claimed that President Trump will be violating the Constitution by hosting the 2020 G-7 summit at one of his own properties in Florida.
The summit, which was last hosted in the United States in 2012, will be held at the Trump National Doral Miami, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney revealed at a press briefing on Thursday. Mulvaney defended the decision claiming that Trump will be “doing this at a cost,” and adding that, “it will be dramatically cheaper for us.”
Napolitano appeared on Fox Business’s Cavuto: Coast to Coast following the announcement and he called the president’s decision “about as direct and profound a violation of the Emoluments Clause as one could create.”
The founders of this country “were concerned about a gift or cash coming directly or indirectly to the president of the United States, even if it’s done at a loss,” he continued. “Now, the president owns shares of stock in a corporation that is one of the owners of this, along with many other investors. He also owns shares of stock in the corporation that manages it. So … those corporations will receive a great deal of money from foreign heads of state because this is there.”
“That’s exactly, exactly what the Emoluments Clause was written to prohibit,” Napolitano concluded.
The Fox analyst has been a frequent critic of the president on the conservative-leaning network, and Trump has been unafraid to respond. Trump hit Napolitano in a tweet earlier this month, claiming the judge soured on him when he refused to put him on the Supreme Court.
