The Constitution says the president is to receive a fixed compensation “which shall never be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected…” President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly said he will refuse such a salary, or perhaps take a token $1 if compensation is required.
Although it is a noble gesture, he should not do so.
The job pays $400,000 in taxpayer funds, and that is what Trump should receive.
If he wishes to donate it to charity as did two of his predecessors, Calvin Coolidge and John F. Kennedy, that is his prerogative.
However, an important principle is at stake. By receiving a paycheck from the public, the president is reminded on whose behalf he serves.
This is not merely some lofty principle disconnected from the reality of having an independently wealthy chief executive. It comes from the Founding Fathers and has real application to the coming administration.
As Rob Goodman wrote for Politico.com, George Washington wished to serve without a salary, but Congress compelled him to do so. No less an authority than Alexander Hamilton argued in the Federalist Papers that “a power over a man’s support is a power over his will.”
In addition, Trump would be wise to put his business interests in a blind trust, following the examples set by his predecessors.
Turning over his businesses to his children, as he has suggested he would do, may create uncomfortable and even inappropriate conflicts.
The nation cannot forget, as Goodman reminds us, that Trump has the power to appoint the head of the IRS, which currently is auditing his taxes. Nor should one forget that policy decisions regarding either domestic or foreign matters might affect Trump’s business fortunes, or that someone might wish to compensate his children in some manner in exchange for executive favors.
Such a connection would be difficult to trace or connect in any formal manner. To avoid even the appearance of such a conflict, the best course is for the president-elect to divorce himself and his family from such temptations.
Trump will be the first president to serve without any prior experience as a public servant. Many former business leaders before him have come to understand that public service, especially when it results from the sacred trust of the electorate, requires setting aside private money-making ventures for a time.
For the next four years, Trump’s only interest should be serving and protecting the American people. It’s not enough to merely say he will do this; he must demonstrate it by setting aside his private life and by accepting in full the compensation Congress has set for the job.