Our System of Checks and Balances is not Dead ... but it's Dying
Preventing the courts from successfully restraining the executive branch or from enjoining the executive branch to abide by the rulings of the Courts could end our form of government
Just few months ago, President Joe Biden issued a blanket pardon to his son Hunter Biden. While his father was vice president, then vice president Biden's son spent years traveling the world and trading on his last name. Allegedly, it was during this period that Hunter Biden lobbied American officials to take measures to assist at least one foreign client. This would have been a clear violation of U.S. foreign lobbying laws. Yet Hunter Biden paid no legal price, largely because of the pardon that was issued by his father. This of course was trumpeted by the MAGA adherents in a process that made a mockery of his father’s campaign pledge to crack down on the practice. At the time, the Republicans rabidly attacked both Hunter Biden and the Biden administration -- and perhaps, rightfully so.
Now lets move forward a few months. Donald Trump is now the sitting president. The Trump family members who are now in charge of the Trump businesses are travelling all over the world and finding inventive ways to profit from Donald Trumps return to office.
For example, we now have the new "Executive Branch club" which offers direct access to the Trump administration at a cost of $500,000. Numerous business deals have been cut with foreign entities that favor and benefit president Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Kushner has used his father-in-law's position at the top of the Executive Branch to garner multimillion-dollar investments with his firm from a number of foreign autocrats.
And then there is a new Trump family cryptocurrency business, which recently closed a multibillion-dollar deal with a fund that is backed by Abu Dhabi. The list of well-financed foreign entities who enter into "business deals" as a means of gaining the American president’s favor is large and growing.
It was only a little over a month ago, for example, that president Trump fled the Whitehouse in the face of a stock market crash, which was induced by his own ill-advised tariff announcements, to attend an LIV golf tournament. Yasir al-Rumayyan runs the $925 billion Saudi sovereign-wealth fund and is also the chair of the LIV tournament. Other sponsors of the tournament included Riyadh Air (a Saudi airline), Aramco (the Saudi state-controlled oil company) and TikTok (the Chinese-owned social-media platform). These companies have a vested interest in gaining access and influence, if not control of, the American presidency. There is little doubt that both president Trump and his family have profited enormously from the sponsorship and support of many foreign entities.
Yet the Trump family willingly ignores the fact that there are great concerns (both ethical and constitutional) about leveraging familial connections to the office of the president of the United States to sign enormous business deals with kleptocratic foreign clients. Under the Trump administration, conflicts of interest are just part of the "game".
In contrast with the case of Hunter Biden, there has been no outcry and no price to be paid for any of these kinds of activities, which seemingly make the actions of Hunter Biden relatively trivial and inconsequential. The Republicans worked themselves into a tizzy over Hunter Biden. Here we are, just a few short months into the Trump administration and one has to wonder what happened to the analog uproar over the Trump family's kleptocratic and illicit enrichment and corruption.
Once upon a time conflicts of interest of this magnitude and, especially those involving foreign entities, which have the ability to influence American foreign policy, were something presidents rightfully sought to avoid. The Emoluments clause of the US Constitution was respected and represented both a legal and an ethical standard that was respected by every American senior official. No more, apparently.
Which brings up a more general, and much more important concern, that requires a national discussion which could not be more germane to the future of our nation and our unique form of government: Should the powers of the Courts be restricted with regard to their ability to rein-in the Executive Branch? (read the article being the link below for key points in this discussion).
https://apnews.com/article/trump-courts-rule-law-justice-contempt-congress-d588119540b8338e7b32e41fc8039dd0
Any action, at this critical juncture, to prevent the courts from successfully restraining the executive branch or from enjoining the executive branch to abide by the rulings of the Courts represents a deep step down a slippery slope that our nation may not recover from.