The Independent View: Bahrain to Hold Major Celebration at Trump’s D.C. Hotel

The Embassy of Bahrain plans to host its annual National Day celebration at President-Elect Trump’s International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Set to take place on Dec. 7th, the Bahrain National Day celebration would add yet another bullet point to the ever-expanding list of potential conflicts of interest facing the President-Elect as he seeks to balance his new role and his global real estate empire. His D.C. hotel already emerged as a point of concern after it suggested to Foreign Dignitaries that staying there during their official visits could help their relationship with the President-Elect.

Last year, the Embassy of Bahrain hosted its National Day Party at the Ritz Carlton, a hotel located about a mile from Trump’s new space.

“They know that they will be currying favor with Donald Trump,” said Laurence Tribe, a Constitutional Law Professor at Harvard Law School. “Around the world it’s regarded as an ordinary way of business that you favor the enterprises and businesses of the head of the government in order to get ahead of everybody else.”

Norm Eisen, former Ethics Adviser to President Barack Obama, previously told The Huffington Post that Foreign Governments and their Embassies paying to use the Trump hotel could violate the Emoluments Clause. “Do we really think all these embassies would have shown up before he ran for office or before he was elected?” Eisen asked rhetorically. “Is it a coincidence that they had that meeting now after he was elected?”

Throughout the Presidential Campaign, Trump repeatedly tried to portray his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as corrupt for meeting with Foreign leaders who had also given money to the Clinton Foundation. One example he cited was a meeting she held with Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa in 2009, when she was the top U.S. Diplomat. State Department emails suggest Clinton was initially hesitant to commit to a meeting, but that she eventually agreed after being contacted by a Bill Clinton aide who helped set up the Clinton Foundation. Bahrain, a Country with a poor human rights record, has donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to the Clinton family’s Nonprofit Organization.

As a key Gulf ally, Bahrain is a top purchaser of U.S. made weapons. The U.S. placed a hold on the sale of some heavy weaponry to the kingdom after a brutal crackdown on protesters in 2011, but the restrictions have since been lifted.