The Trump Administration has long had a troubling pattern of referencing Trump properties or products, including ethics warnings being given high-ranking officials. Other complaints, including those filed in federal court, allege that use of Trump properties like the Trump Hotel in Washington constitute unconstitutional emoluments. That history makes President Donald Trump’s recent tweet pitching the Trump golf course in Scotland all the more baffling, particularly when it made a direct reference to the golf course between great for the “U.K. relationship” with the United States.
Trump tweeted about his Scotland course in Aberdeenshire as “perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world” and declared that the course was “close to ideal” as a landscape with “no weak holes.”
Trump further insisted that it “furthers U.K. relationship!”
The White House has maintained that the President’s tweets are official presidential statements. That makes such a pitch even more concerning.
For obvious reasons, ethics experts cried foul.
The Scotland course has been a controversy for years after Trump promised thousands of jobs and a windfall of tax revenues. Instead, it has a fraction of the promise labor force and is reportedly losing a million dollars a year.
The President cannot maintain separation from his family properties and businesses if he is pitching the virtues of golf courses. While I remain skeptical of emoluments arguments, the tweet is another highly inappropriate communication that only undermines the position of the Trump legal team.