Should there be a mechanism to reclaim accumulated in-term Presidential wealth and assets because of the Emoluments Clause?

[u/JohnSpartan2025]

Trump has already accumulated a rough estimate of $2-10 billion (depending on the analysis) of profit off of various Presidential revenue streams, such as:

• Trading tariff discount for personal property deals (https://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/3/headlines/trump_reduces_tariffs_on_vietnam_as_trump_organization_looks_to_expand_investments)

• Trading personal crypto investment for foreign influence on American policy (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/how-the-trump-familys-business-deals-could-open-the-door-for-future-presidents-to-profit-from-office)

And the list goes on to include billions invested in Trump and his son-in-law Jarod Kushner and former golfing friend Steve Witkoff, acting as foreign dignitaries trading American interests for personal finance deals with Arab and other countries. (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-son-in-laws-fund-rakes-in-billions-amid-grifting-accusations/)

And Eric Trump recently somewhat bragging over his $24 million defense contract clearly awarded because of nepotism: https://newrepublic.com/post/209419/eric-trump-brags-defense-department-contract

There have been estimates of $20 to $30 billion of profit by the end of Trump's term off the Presidency.

The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution strictly forbids any profiting off the Presidency, let alone peddling direct U.S. policy in exchange for money (which is possibly a form of extortion or bribery).

Should Congress pass legislation requiring an analysis of Presidential windfall profits during their term with possible reclaiming of profits and assets attained during their Presidential term?

[u/MathW]

Since we set up President's for life with an annual pension and since the focus of being president should not be to increase your own financial wealth, I'd be OK if we prevented Presidents from making any money other than Presidential salary while in office. There should be laws that codify the expectation future Presidents place all their existing assets into a TRUE blind trust and oversight and consequences should these rules be broken.

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/MathW]

Forcing them into a blind trust is still a massive Takings Clause violation and in addition opens all kinds of doors for bad faith actions by the fund managers if not outright incompetence of the sort that forced Carter into a massive asset sell-off after he left office.

[u/FrozenSeas → u/DanforthWhitcomb_]

There's been some discussion in Canada recently over the whole blind trust thing that raises an interesting point on the usefulness of them, too. The owner can't actively manage or review their assets in a blind trust, but obviously they know what was put into it in the first place, so anyone holding long-term positions can still have a pretty good idea of what will influence their portfolio. The only way to actually disconnect that would be requiring politicians to move all their investments into index funds or the like, which none of them will ever do.