By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 8, 2017 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 8, 2017 |
This morning Donald Trump tweeted this:
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
Afterwards, he retweeted it from the Official POTUS account. Nordstrom — which pulled Ivanka Trump’s clothing line earlier this week because of flagging sales — saw its stock drop as a result (before rebounding), proving once again that Donald Trump has the power to both punish and reward businesses who do and do not conduct business with him.
Sean Spicer even went so far as to make that the official government line in today’s press conference.
Nordstrom hurting Ivanka "brand" and is "a direct attack" on Trump/policies, says Spicer — blurring line between public/private interests
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) February 8, 2017
That’s a huge conflict of interests, and Tweeter eagerly called him on it.
Trump is blackmailing companies like Nordstrom, showing he can crush their stocks w/ a single tweet if they dont do business w/ his family.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) February 8, 2017
Did you just use an official platform of the President of the United States to RT about your daughter's personal business venture? #Crook https://t.co/NvOBFwKQ1v
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) February 8, 2017
I often promote my daughter's work. But I'm in entertainment #PrezTrump not a Reality TV star anymore! Is this what US voted for? Really? https://t.co/BmkiEji1ue
— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) February 8, 2017
According to the White House schedule, President @realDonaldTrump sent the @Nordstrom tweet 20 minutes into his daily intelligence briefing. pic.twitter.com/PkBtetnjJ0
— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 8, 2017
So now it is official US Government position that Nordstrom's should be carrying Ivanka Trump's product lines, regardless of market demand. https://t.co/W1PxP0xpuQ
— IDiedInBowlingGreen (@soonergrunt) February 8, 2017
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Melania Trump sued The Daily Mail for defamation, claiming that by suggesting she worked as an escort, the newspaper robbed Melania of earning potentially millions of dollars by depriving her of her “once in a lifetime” opportunity to be the First Lady.
Elswhere, Trump’s sons are taking expensive business trips on the taxpayer dime; the Pentagon is considering leasing space from Donald Trump; Trump is still profiting off of his DC Hotel; and he’s done very little to separate himself from his business.
People seem to have decided Emoluments/conflicts-of-interest/missing-taxes is no big deal but it's unconstitutional EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
— Elliott Lusztig (@ezlusztig) February 7, 2017
All this and more is exactly what ethics experts warned the President about before his Inauguration. These conflicts of interests felt like the most dominant conversation in politics for two months, and now that he’s actually created the very conflicts that we warned about, surely someone will do something, right?
No? OK, cool. We’re just going to let impeachable offenses slide now?
Reminder, Republicans: If the Democrats manage to take back the House in 2018 — and, on average, the minority party gains 30 seats in midterm elections, which is enough to give the House back to Dems — then they will have plenty with which to impeach Trump and perhaps even Pence. And if Pence and Trump go down, you know who would become President in that scenario, don’t you?