The Cons ution includes a few provisions that are sometimes described as “emoluments” clauses. One such provision, sometimes referred to as the “foreign emoluments clause,” provides that “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or le, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
Another provision, which is sometimes referred to as the “domestic emoluments clause,” provides that the president shall receive “a Compensation” for his services, and shall not receive “any other Emolument from the United States, or any of [the several states].”
The meaning of the word “emolument” is contested in litigation challenging Trump’s alleged violations of both the foreign and the domestic clause. But most dictionaries from the era of the US’s founding define the word broadly...