‘For Sale’ On Oval Office? Blumenthal SLAMS Trump, Senate ERUPTS In Explosive Face-Off

[00:00:00]I'm here today with a very straightforward, simple resolution. It's about enforcement.

[00:00:09]For most of my career I was an enforcer.

[00:00:15]A federal prosecutor, United States Attorney for Connecticut, and then Attorney General of the State of Connecticut for 20 years.

[00:00:25]So, I know, we all know that the law is dead letter if it's not enforced.

[00:00:34]And there is a very, very profoundly important law, in fact, our Constitution that needs enforcement.

[00:00:44]That's the task that brings me to the Senate floor today.

[00:00:51]I am asking for a resolution to direct the Senate Legal Counsel to bring a civil action in the name of the United States Senate to enforce the Foreign Emoluments Clause contained in Article 1 of the Constitution.

[00:01:09]This clause states that the President cannot accept any gifts payments benefits or anything else of value from foreign governments unless he receives the consent of Congress.

[00:01:29]Presidents have uniformly obeyed the Emoluments Clause for all of our illustrious 250 years of existence.

[00:01:40]The founders thought this clause was central to preserving our nation.

[00:01:50]Why?

[00:01:51]Because at the time of our founding we were a fledgling and struggling nation foreign powers like France and England were arrayed against us with potentates and rich business people, powerful adversaries who could corrupt our leaders.

[00:02:16]And so, specifically in the Constitution, as a matter of our national security, not just to prevent corruption, gift taking that might violate our sense of morality, but as a matter of the defense of our nation, they inserted the Emoluments Clause that required consent of Congress before the president or any other public official could accept anything of value, whether it be a benefit, an indirect payment, anything of value. And so, now, if you are a member of the armed services and you're asked to teach a course in another country and you're paid for it, you need to get permission. It applies to the lowliest of federal officials and the highest. The Emoluments Clause is part of our Constitution.

[00:03:18]I know a lot about the Emoluments Clause because I sued Donald Trump under the Emoluments Clause during his first term.

[00:03:29]And we won at the district court level.

[00:03:32]In fact, we prevailed in that lawsuit, but then we were told that we had no standing.

[00:03:43]Under the federal laws of procedure, a party in court to successfully invoke the jurisdiction of the federal courts must have what is called standing, which is not just agreement, but personal involvement and harm.

[00:04:04]And the court said in effect you are individual members of Congress.

[00:04:11]There were more than 250 of us, but you're not the body.

[00:04:16]You're not the Senate. You're not the House of Representatives.

[00:04:21]Which brings me here today.

[00:04:24]Because I want the United States Senate to take a stand.

[00:04:33]To stand up against the illegal practices of this president in taking an array of benefits, including payments, literally payments, in violation of the Emoluments Clause.

[00:04:52]The Emoluments Clause is dead letter if it's not enforced.

[00:04:56]And our national security is at risk.

[00:05:02]President Trump's willingness to use the privileges of his office to enrich himself is well known to Americans.

[00:05:12]And it seems to have no bounds. Just this month, President Trump's gift from the government of Qatar, a $400 million jet, entered service as an interim Air Force One, but he wants to take that jet and then install it as part of his private library. In fact, he may use it afterward.

[00:05:42]We don't know. What we do know is costly modifications were required to ensure the installation of multiple top secret systems to get the plane flight ready and now it has to go back for more work because in fact the security system right now is inadequate. But we know taxpayers are going to foot the bill.

[00:06:06]A benefit to the president probably in excess of $1 billion. Yeah.

[00:06:16]That jet barely scratches the surface of emoluments going to President Trump.

[00:06:27]In In 2025 President Trump and his son took about $500 million for a 49% for a 49% stake in the Trump family crypto business World Liberty Financial.

[00:06:50]Invested by the MGX Fund Management Limited which is an investment firm in turn backed by a UAE sovereign wealth fund at the initiative of Sheikh Tahnoun the UAE's national security advisor and the brother of the UAE's president. In other words an investment by the UAE wealth fund controlled by the ruling family of the UAE for 49% in World Liberty Financial, $500 million. Yeah.

[00:07:33]And then magically magically President Trump approved sales of $1.4 million in military equipment for the UAE.

[00:07:48]And in addition, the sale of highly sophisticated advanced chips necessary for the UAE to build a data center that could rival ours in the United States.

[00:08:06]Our national security compromised as a result of payments to World Liberty Financial, the Trump and by the way, Witkoff family crypto business.

[00:08:22]This kind of self-enrichment which has made a very wealthy Donald Trump even wealthier. He made $2 billion last year.

[00:08:36]$2 billion in in income.

[00:08:39]$1.4 billion of it from crypto is not only offensive as a matter of self-enrichment but it is a threat to our national security, exactly the same kind of threat that our founders sought to prevent as a result of the Emoluments Clause.

[00:09:06]Not only has President Trump violated flagrantly the Emoluments Clause, but he's effectively slapped a for sale sign on the door of the Oval Office.

[00:09:21]He accepted a gold plated desk clock and an engraved guild bar as gifts from Swiss business executives before slashing Switzerland's tariff rate.

[00:09:33]He hosted a private gala dinner during featuring a tour of the White House to reward top buyers of the Trump cryptocurrency memecoin.

[00:09:47]Attendees of that dinner included Chinese billionaires, CEOs, and investors with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

[00:09:58]The American president is supposed to work for us, for the American people, for everyday Americans, not for his own self-enrichment.

[00:10:07]And that is what the emoluments clause is really supposed to guarantee.

[00:10:16]That the president of the United States works for the United States, not for himself.

[00:10:26]As I mentioned, I tried to enforce the emoluments clause myself by filing a lawsuit on June 14th, 2017.

[00:10:36]The United States Court for the District of Columbia held that we didn't have standing.

[00:10:41]I disagree.

[00:10:44]I think we do have standing under the law, but I respect the court's judgment, and so we are charting this path forward.

[00:10:54]This resolution is necessary now to give the Senate the ability to hold President Trump accountable on behalf of the American people to go to court and have our day before a judge who will assess the facts of this case and second-guess me or any of us and rule and uphold the rule of law.

[00:11:24]I urge my colleagues to support this resolution to restore the dignity of the executive office and to assure enforcement of the Constitution of the United States of America.

[00:11:42]And so, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 22, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 807 and that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

[00:12:04]>> Is there objection?

[00:12:05]>> Mr. President.

[00:12:06]>> Senator from Florida.

[00:12:08]>> Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

[00:12:12]Mr. President, at time when we're seeing the Democrat Party embrace the hellish evils of socialism and ideologies that hate the founding ideals of America, Democrats are hoping to pass a resolution to direct this chamber to sue the President of the United States on a very false premise.

[00:12:30]The Emoluments Clause reads, quote, "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States." I don't think that's happening.

[00:12:39]And no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatsoever from any king, prince, or foreign state.

[00:12:53]Now, the obvious answer is that these these accusations by my colleague do not support the constitutional threshold of an emolument.

[00:13:03]And my Democrat colleagues are just playing politics.

[00:13:07]This resolution seeks to authorize litigation rather than legislate.

[00:13:12]This issue is already been litigated, and as my colleague said, they lost.

[00:13:18]The Democrats just like to don't like the answer. Now, the President isn't taking a plane or any gifts for personal use.

[00:13:28]The United States has long accepted diplomatic gifts pursuant to federal law, which with such gifts generally becoming property of the United States rather than any individual office holder.

[00:13:38]Now, what's going on here is Democrats are putting their hatred for President Trump before the law.

[00:13:43]But aside from the obvious facts, this is the agenda Democrats want from this chamber. They won't They won't a fund government. They want to shut it down.

[00:13:50]They walked away from government funding negotiations. They don't want to secure elections.

[00:13:54]They want systematic fraud because it benefits their elected incumbents.

[00:13:58]Department of Homeland Security just found 278,000 non-citizens on voter rolls for federal elections. Are Democrats talking about that?

[00:14:06]Just last week, President Trump exposed foreign adversaries like China and Cuba for interfering in our elections.

[00:14:12]Did my Democratic colleagues talk about that?

[00:14:15]There Schumer responded to facts about voter fraud by declaring the Save America Act an election security bill even though Democrats, Republicans, and independents all across the country believe in it, said it's dead on arrival.

[00:14:27]Unfortunately, my Democratic Democratic colleagues don't want fixes. They want to ignore the fraud because it benefits them.

[00:14:32]They're trying to distract the American people with platitudes while they defraud them of their vote.

[00:14:37]Have you looked at what Olive Garden's doing?

[00:14:40]Okay? You can You can buy You can buy a um a pasta pass, an unlimited pasta pass.

[00:14:46]Uh but guess what you have to do?

[00:14:48]You have to show an ID.

[00:14:50]So, Olive Garden has a voter ID, but my Democratic colleagues don't want to do it for federal elections.

[00:14:57]The bill This bill proves that the Democrats' goal right now is to attack President Trump instead of fixing problems Americans expect us to deal with.

[00:15:05]They don't want to reduce the cost of living, lower inflation, balance the budget.

[00:15:10]But they do want to tax working Americans so they can spend it spend more of it on special interests and run bigger deficits. Are we spending two trillion dollars in deficits?

[00:15:19]They want to use the Senate's time, the precious time we have, to attack President Trump by twisting the words of the Constitution.

[00:15:25]The resolution is moot is moot. The accusation is purely political.

[00:15:30]We all know it's political. It's a waste of time.

[00:15:33]And this chamber only works two and a half days a week. I think we need to spend every time doing something like pass the Save America Act, fund our government, lower the debt, lower the deficit.

[00:15:44]Of course, my Democrat colleagues aren't coming to the table.

[00:15:47]Why don't we spend some time on real issues rather than attacking the president?

[00:15:51]For those reasons, Mr. President, I object to the passages of this resolution and hope my colleagues can reject the anti-American socialist capture of the Democrat Party before it's too late for all of us.