Objecting to the Conduct of the President of the United States.
115TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. RES. ll
Objecting to the conduct of the President of the United States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Mr. COHEN submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
RESOLUTION
Objecting to the conduct of the President of the United States.
Whereas, on January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump swore to
‘‘faithfully execute the Office of President of the United
States’’ and to ‘‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution
of the United States.’’;
Whereas the Constitution prohibits Federal office holders
from accepting emoluments of any kind from a foreign
state without the consent of Congress;
Whereas President Trump has refused to divest, place into a
blind trust, or otherwise give up his ownership interest in
his worldwide business holdings since becoming President;
Whereas President Trump has refused to release his tax returns,
in a break from the practice of United States
Presidents for more than 40 years;
Whereas, on February 14, 2017, the Chinese Government
registered a trademark to Donald John Trump for branded
construction services, following a 10-year legal battle
that turned in Donald John Trump’s favor after he declared
his candidacy for President of the United States;
Whereas, on February 27, 2017, and March 6, 2017, the
Chinese Government granted preliminary approval of 38
new trademarks to Donald John Trump and one of his
companies, and the director of a Hong Kong intellectual
property consultancy said he had never seen so many applications
approved so expeditiously, and the approvals
closely followed President Trump’s decision to honor the
one-China policy, in contrast to his earlier statements;
Whereas President Trump did not first seek or obtain the
consent of Congress before accepting any of these trademark
benefits from China;
Whereas President Trump owns approximately 77 percent of
the Trump Old Post Office LLC, which holds a lease
from the General Services Administration to operate the
Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC;
Whereas the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC
has actively courted foreign diplomats for their business
and, according to public reports since the November 2016
election, diplomats have made plans to stay at the hotel
to curry favor with Donald John Trump and, whereas,
some diplomats have said spending money at Trump’s
hotel is an easy, friendly gesture to the new President;
Whereas, in late January 2017, a lobbying firm working for
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia paid for a room at the
Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, after Inauguration
Day as part of its effort to bring activists to
Washington to urge Congress to repeal the law letting 9/
11 victims’ families sue the Kingdom;
Whereas the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC,
has reportedly taken in $270,000 in payments tied to
Saudi Arabia for expenses including lodging, catering,
and parking expenses;
Whereas, on February 22, 2017, the Embassy of Kuwait held
its National Day Celebration at Trump International
Hotel Washington, DC;
Whereas, on or about April 6, 2017, the Ambassador and
Permanent Representative of Georgia to the United Nations
stayed at Trump International Hotel in Washington,
DC;
Whereas President Trump did not first seek or obtain the
consent of Congress before accepting any of the benefits
from foreign states derived from their patronage of the
Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC;
Whereas President Trump owns Trump Tower, a mixed-use
skyscraper in New York City and at least two tenants of
Trump Tower are entities owned by foreign states, including—
(1) the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China,
which is owned by China; and
(2) Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, which
is owned by the United Arab Emirates;
Whereas President Trump did not first seek or obtain the
consent of Congress before accepting any of the benefits
from foreign states derived from their patronage of the
Trump Tower in New York City;
Whereas President Trump owns Trump World Tower in New
York City and whereas, in 2001, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia purchased a floor of Trump World Tower and the
floor currently belongs to the Saudi Mission to the
United Nations;
Whereas President Trump has not sought or obtained the
consent of Congress for any benefits he has received,
such as monthly assessments, from Saudi Arabia due to
its use of Trump World Tower in New York City;
Whereas President Trump is an executive producer of ‘‘The
Apprentice’’ and the state-owned television station BBC
One in the United Kingdom pays licensing fees to broadcast
the show;
Whereas President Trump has not sought or obtained the
consent of Congress before accepting benefits from the
United Kingdom, or any other foreign government, in the
form of licensing fees for ‘‘The Apprentice.’’;
Whereas President Trump’s travel to resorts in which he has
an ownership interest, such as Mar-a-Lago in Palm
Beach, Florida, the Trump National Golf Club in
Bedminster, New Jersey, and the Trump National Golf
Club in Sterling, Virginia, costs taxpayers millions of dollars
while such resorts receive the benefit of publicity;
Whereas President Trump appointed Retired Lieutenant
General Michael Flynn to serve as National Security Advisor;
Whereas, on January 26, 2017, Acting Attorney General
Sally Yates warned White House Counsel Don McGahn
that National Security Advisor Flynn had misled Vice
President Mike Pence about his communications with
Russian Ambassador to the United States, Sergey
Kislyak, and that, as a result, Flynn was at risk of being
blackmailed by the Russians;
Whereas Flynn was not asked to resign from the Administration
until February 13, 2017;
Whereas, on January 27, 2017, President Trump invited
FBI Director James Comey to a one-on-one dinner at the
White House, during which he told Director Comey he
needed loyalty;
Whereas, on February 14, 2017, President Trump told Director
James Comey, ‘‘I hope you can see your way clear
to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,’’ and, ‘‘He is a
good guy. I hope you can let this go.’’;
Whereas, on March 20, 2017, Director James Comey testified
before Congress that the FBI was investigating Russian
interference with the 2016 United States Presidential
election and whether there was any collusion with
the Trump campaign;
Whereas, on May 9, 2017, while the FBI was investigating
whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign
and Russia, President Trump fired FBI Director
James Comey;
Whereas in his letter informing Director James Comey that
he was being terminated, President Trump said, ‘‘While
I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate
occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless
concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice
that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.’’;
Whereas, on May 12, 2017, while speaking in a nationally
televised interview about his decision to fire Director
James Comey, President Trump said, ‘‘And in fact when
I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said you know,
this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up
story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an
election that they should have won.’’;
Whereas, according to a published report, President Trump
told Russian officials, ‘‘I just fired the head of the FBI.
He was crazy, a real nut job. . . I faced great pressure
because of Russia. That’s taken off.’’;
Whereas, on May 12, 2017, President Trump tweeted,
‘‘James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of
our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!’’;
Whereas, on June 22, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘With
all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts
unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I
have no idea . . . whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings
of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not
make, and do not have, any such recordings’’;
Whereas, on March 4, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘Terrible!
Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’
in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found.
This is McCarthyism!’’ and, ‘‘How low has President
Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred
election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick)
guy!’’;
Whereas, on March 20, 2017, at a hearing of the Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives,
both FBI Director James Comey and National
Security Agency Director Mike Rogers both denied
there was any information supporting President Trump’s
allegation that President Obama had wiretapped President
Trump;
Whereas, on May 10, 2017, while hosting Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the
United States Sergey Kislyak at the White House, President
Trump revealed highly classified ‘‘code-word’’ level
information to Ambassador Kislyak, concerning information
from a United States intelligence partner;
Whereas President Trump prohibited American press from
witnessing his May 10, 2017, meeting with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to
the United States Sergey Kislyak at the White House,
but allowed a Russian photographer to have access;
Whereas, on April 29, 2017, while speaking by telephone with
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, President Trump
revealed that the United States had two nuclear submarines
near North Korea;
Whereas, in February 2017, while President Trump hosted
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his Mar-a-Lago
Club, President Trump discussed a ballistic missile test
by North Korea in an unsecured dining terrace in view
of club dining patrons;
Whereas President Trump has appointed his son-in-law,
Jared Kushner, to serve as an envoy to foreign leaders,
despite having no diplomatic experience;
Whereas United States foreign policy has long been based on
both our nation’s interest as well as our values, including
democracy, freedom of the press, and promotion of
human rights;
Whereas, on April 3, 2017, when speaking about Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, President Trump said,
‘‘We agreed on so many things. I just want to let everybody
know, in case there was any doubt, that we are very
much behind President al-Sisi. He’s done a fantastic job
in a very difficult situation.’’;
Whereas President al-Sisi rose to power in a coup, and in his
country antigovernment protests have been banned, freedom
of press and freedom of religion have been repressed,
some independent human rights groups have
been banned, and it has been estimated that 60,000 political
prisoners have been detained;
Whereas, on April 29, 2017, President Trump invited Philippines
President Rodrigo Duterte to visit him at the
White House, despite the fact that Duterte has been accused
of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects;
Whereas, on March 17, 2017, President Trump refused to
shake German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hand in an
Oval Office meeting;
Whereas, on May 25, 2017, President Trump pushed aside
Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic in order to
move to the front of a group of NATO leaders;
Whereas President Trump has been slow to fill critical diplomatic
posts including the United States Ambassadors to
Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and other State
Department positions that are vital to our nation’s security;
Whereas, on January 27, 2017, President Trump issued an
executive order that banned nationals from seven Muslim-
majority countries from entering the United States
for at least 90 days, banned admission of all refugees for
four months, indefinitely blocked refugees from Syria,
and contained language prioritizing the admission of non-
Muslims from majority Muslim nations;
Whereas, on January 31, 2017, Homeland Security Secretary
John Kelly said, ‘‘This is not a travel ban . . . This is
not – I repeat, not – a ban on Muslims. . .’’;
Whereas, on January 31, 2017, White House Press Secretary
Sean Spicer said, ‘‘First of all, it’s not a travel ban.’’;
Whereas, on February 3, 2017, U.S. District Court Judge
James Robart in the state of Washington blocked implementation
of the travel ban nationwide;
Whereas, on February 9, 2017, a three-judge panel of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against
reinstating the travel ban;
Whereas, on March 6, 2017, President Trump issued a revised
executive order that removed Iraq from the list of
nations from which immigration would be temporarily
banned, and no longer contained language indefinitely
banning Syrian refugees or calling for prioritized admission
for non-Muslims fleeing majority Muslim nations;
Whereas, on March 15, 2017, U.S. District Court Judge Derrick
Watson in the state of Hawaii blocked implementation
of President Trump’s revised executive order, noting
that when Mr. Trump was asked during the presidential
campaign if he was pulling back from a ‘‘Muslim ban,’’
Mr. Trump said, ‘‘I don’t think it’s a rollback. In fact,
you could say it’s an expansion. I‘m looking now at territories.
People were so upset when I used the word Muslim.
Oh, you can’t use the word Muslim. Remember this.
And I’m okay with that, because I’m talking about territory
instead of Muslim.’’;
Whereas Judge Watson also noted that Senior White House
Advisor Stephen Miller had told Fox News that the revised
executive order would have the ‘‘same basic policy
outcome for the country,’’ and that Rudolph Giuliani had
explained the origin of the original executive order by
saying, ‘‘When øMr. Trump¿ first announced it, he said
‘Muslim ban.’ He called me up. He said, ‘Put a commission
together. Show me the right way to do it legally.’ ’’;
Whereas, on May 25, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Fourth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction blocking
President Trump’s revised executive order, saying it
‘‘drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.’’;
Whereas, on June 5, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘People,
the lawyers and courts can call it whatever they
want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is,
a TRAVEL BAN!’’;
Whereas, on June 26, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed
to hear a challenge by the Trump Administration to rulings
blocking full implementation of the President’s revised
executive order;
Whereas, on June 29, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘I
heard poorly rated @MorninglJoe speaks badly of me
(don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy
Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came…to Mar-a-Lago 3
nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on
joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said
no!’’;
Whereas, in a February 4, 2017, tweet, President Trump referred
to a Federal judge with whom he disagreed as a
‘‘so-called judge’’;
Whereas, in a May 9, 2017, President Trump referred to the
United States Senate Minority Leader as ‘‘Cryin’ Chuck
Schumer’’ in a tweet;
Whereas, on April 28, 2017, President Trump referred to
United States Senator Elizabeth Warren as ‘‘Pocahontas’’
in a speech to the National Rifle Association;
Whereas President Trump has called press reports, ‘‘fake
news’’ and in some instances his administration has prohibited
video recordings of White House press briefings;
Whereas President Trump used Twitter to circulate a video
of him violently wrestling a man covered by a CNN logo,
which, according to the Reporters Committee on Freedom
of the Press, was a ‘‘threat of physical violence against
journalists . . øand¿ beneath the office of the presidency.’’;
Whereas free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy;
Whereas, on January 6, 2017, the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence detailed Russian efforts to influence
the 2016 Presidential election, stating, ‘‘We assess Russian
President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign
in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.
Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S.
democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and
harm her electability and potential presidency. We further
assess Putin and the Russian Government developed
a clear preference for President-elect Trump.’’;
Whereas President Trump has refused to acknowledge, unequivocally,
that Russia meddled in the 2016 Presidential
election, saying, instead, things like ‘‘I think it very well
could be Russia but I think it could very well have been
other countries. . . I think a lot of people interfere.’’;
Whereas, on June 6, 2017, while on foreign soil, President
Trump criticized former President Obama, saying, ‘‘The
thing I have to mention is that Barack Obama when he
was President found out about this in terms of if it were
Russia, found out about it in August, now the election
was in November, that’s a lot of time he did nothing
about it. Why did he do nothing about it? He was told
it was Russia by the CIA as I understand it . . . I think
what happened was that he thought that Hillary Clinton
was going to win the election and he said let’s not do
anything about it.’’;
Whereas President Obama issued repeated warnings to Russian
officials, including a direct warning to Russian
President Vladimir Putin, approved a cyberwarfare campaign
against Russia, and expelled Russian diplomats
from the United States;
Whereas, on July 9, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘Putin
& I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security
unit so that election hacking, & many other negative
things, will be guarded. . .’’;
Whereas President Trump has not empaneled a commission
to investigate Russian interference with the 2016 United
States Presidential election, but has empaneled a commission
to investigate unfounded claims that there were
as many as 5,000,000 fraudulent votes in the United
States Presidential election, which President Trump has
claimed cost him the popular vote;
Whereas, on June 29, 2017, the United States Senate passed
S. 722, the Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act
of 2017, which included sanctions on Russia, by a vote
of 98–2;
Whereas President Trump’s Administration has sought
changes to S. 722 to make it more friendly to Russia;
Whereas, on June 1, 2017, President Trump pulled out of
the Paris Climate Agreement, a historic pact among
nearly 200 parties, including Russia and China, to reduce
emissions that raise global temperatures, put lives and
property at risk, and imperil the planet upon which we
live, and, Syria and Nicaragua were the only nations that
did not sign the Paris Agreement, and Nicaragua objected
because it felt the agreement did not go far
enough;
Whereas 97 percent of climate scientists agree that human
activity has impacted climate change;
Whereas, on May 28, 2017, after transatlantic meetings, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel concluded that President
Trump was not the kind of traditionally reliable partner
for Germany and Europe on whom they have been able
to depend in the past, saying that traditional alliances
were no longer as steadfast. Merkel stated that Europe
should, ‘‘really take our fate into our own hands . . .’’
and said, ‘‘The times in which we could rely fully on others
– they are somewhat over.’’;
Whereas President Trump’s opposition to the Paris Climate
Agreement put the United States at odds on climate
change with the rest of the G–20 at its July 2017 meeting
in Hamburg, Germany;
Whereas President Trump failed to secure an international
agreement at the July 2017 G–20 meeting to counter the
threat posed by a nuclear-armed North Korea;
Whereas President Trump’s first cabinet appointments had
the smallest percentage of women and nonwhites combined
than any since President Reagan;
Whereas the gender pay gap at President Trump’s White
House is more than double the national pay gap;
Whereas, on January 21, 2017, President Trump’s spokesperson
said, ‘‘Photographs of the inaugural proceedings
were intentionally framed in a way, in one particular
Tweet, to minimize the enormous support that had gathered
on the National Mall . . . That was the largest audience
to witness an inauguration, period. Both in person
and around the globe.’’;
Whereas in support of his assertion about the inaugural
crowd size, President Trump’s spokesperson said, ‘‘We
know that 420,000 people used DC Metro public transit
yesterday, which compares to 317,000 that it used for
President Obama’s last inaugural,’’ but transit officials
said that 570,557 riders used the transit system on January
20, 2017, as compared with 1.1 million trips the
day of President Obama’s first inauguration and 782,000
trips the day of President Obama’s second inauguration;
Whereas, on February 16, 2017, President Trump said his
2016 election victory was, ‘‘the biggest electoral college
win since Ronald Reagan’’;
Whereas Donald J. Trump received 304 electoral votes in
2016;
Whereas Barrack Obama received 332 electoral votes in
2012, and 365 electoral votes in 2008;
Whereas Bill Clinton received 379 electoral votes in 1996,
and 370 electoral votes in 1992;
Whereas George H. W. Bush received 426 electoral votes in
1988; and
Whereas when President Trump was presented with facts
about the size of his predecessors’ electoral victory margins
at a press conference on February 16, 2017, he responded,
‘‘I don’t know, I was given that information. I
actually, I’ve seen that information around.’’: Now, therefore,
be it
1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2
resentatives that—
3 (1) based on the conduct described in the pre4
amble, the House of Representatives has no con5
fidence that President Trump is faithfully executing
6 the office of President of the United States; and
7 (2) President Trump should—
8 (A) release his tax returns;
9 (B) place his private business assets in a
10 blind trust or to divest from them;
11 (C) donate to the United States Treasury,
12 as he promised, any personal profit he has
13 made from foreign patronage of hotels in which
14 he has an ownership interest;
15 (D) refrain from taking any action that re16
sults in taxpayer money being spent on goods
17 or services from businesses in which he has an
18 ownership interest, such as Mar-a-Lago in Palm
19 Beach, Florida, the Trump National Golf Club
16
1 in Bedminster, New Jersey, and the Trump Na2
tional Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia;
3 (E) seek congressional consent for any and
4 all emoluments he has received from foreign
5 countries;
6 (F) refrain from using Twitter inappropri7
ately, including refraining from posting com8
ments that could adversely impact United
9 States foreign policy;
10 (G) support the First Amendment, support
11 freedom of the press, refrain from calling re12
porting ‘‘fake news’’, refrain from posting video
13 of himself wrestling with a press logo, and stop
14 limiting full electronic press access to White
15 House press briefings;
16 (H) promote democracy, freedom of the
17 press, and human rights in foreign policy;
18 (I) unequivocally acknowledge that Russia
19 interfered in the 2016 United States Presi20
dential election, and work to protect our elec21
toral process from any future foreign inter22
ference;
Published September 26,2020