Senator shreds Trump for 'Grift pure and simple'

[B.See]

'Grift pure and simple': Senator shreds Trump for 'selling the residency' - Rawstory via MSN

Donald Trump's new luxury jet gift from the Qatari government is a blatant attempt to profit... at the expense of properly representing the American people, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday evening.

Trump has insisted that he is just doing what any reasonable person would do, and even compared accepting the jet to moving to the next hole when your golf opponent lets you skip a putt. But nothing could be further from the truth, Van Hollen argued.

"I mean, the reason we have the Emoluments Clause in the Constitution is to guard against countries essentially trying to buy favor with the President of the United States, and that's exactly what's happening here in this transaction," Van Hollen continued.

Furthermore, he added, "As you mentioned, on this visit to the UAE, normally you would send your advance team of diplomats. In this case, it was the Trump family, business representatives, Eric Trump and others that did the advance, essentially to cut private deals to enrich the family and put the United States in a conflict position with respect to these other countries."