Trump’s plan “did not screen all ‘emoluments … of any kind whatever,’ as required by the Constitution, but only some revenues, and only from his hotels,” Eisen wrote over e-mail. He elaborated: “The Emoluments Clause doesn’t only cover some hotel revenues, as the Trump team wrongly believes, but applies to a much broader range of foreign government benefits that Trump is collecting, and will continue to collect, from foreign governments. On January 20, that will be in direct violation of the Constitution.”
We think it’s impractical for Trump to sell all of his holdings into a blind trust — direct holdings of real estate aren’t very fungible, and the point of blind trusts isn’t to impoverish onesself in a firesale (which isn’t necessary when selling frequently-traded stocks, as in the typical case). However, more could undoubtedly be done — like hiring unconnected outside executives to run the Trump organization(s).