Last night, in nothing other than a tweet, President Trump again abused the power of his office and broke the law in order to enrich his friends and family.
The tweet in question noted that his son, Donald, had just written a “really important new book” in which he talks with “great knowledge” about our world today. Considering Donald Trump Jr.’s highest accolades include appearing on The Apprentice, publishing a book entitled Triggered, and being President Trump’s favorite son, he hardly seems like an expert authority on what is happening in the world today.
However absurd it surely would be, perhaps a review of Donald Trump Jr.’s new book, Liberal Privilege, is in order.
President Trump felt compelled to finish the tweet by encouraging his audience to “make him a number one bestseller, again!”
Unfortunately for President Trump, such actions, like the “use of public office for private gain,” either for oneself, a friend, or relative, is illegal. Whether the president is aware of that or not is unclear.
Such behavior goes against standards of ethical conduct for employees of the executive branch as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Although this particular case is exceedingly clear, President Trump has made other questionable decisions that may have violated the CFR. At the very least, his incessant lies about voter fraud, weak handling of the pandemic, and lack of condemnation for excessive police violence are behaviors unbecoming of the office, if not entirely in violation with federal regulations and codes of ethics.
To be precise, President Trump’s endorsement of his son’s new book, among various other products via his office, is in clear violation of Section 2635.702 of Title 5 in the CFR.
If any critics attempt to point out that the regulation cited above applies to administrative personnel of the executive branch, feel free to direct them here to Section 100.1, Part 100, Chapter I, of Title 3 of the CFR, which deals specifically with the Office of the President:
Some on Twitter have tried to argue that such statements are not official, merely Trump using a social media platform. Unfortunately for them, that argument doesn’t hold water. President Trump’s tweets are considered official presidential statements, per his own Department of Justice.
This marks yet another illegal action by an already impeached president.
The Political Historian 