The art piece is optimistic about the public’s knowledge of the emoluments clause.
The ongoing gallery of anti-Trump art just got a splashy new addition. that artist Robin Bell projected a series of words onto the front of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, on Monday night: “Pay Trump bribes here.” “Emoluments welcome.” And then the text of the of the Constitution, which forbids US government officials to accept gifts from foreign powers. The Trump International Hotel has hosted several foreign dignitaries ever since Trump was elected. “Why wouldn’ t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’ t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’ ” in November. — it’s why presidents traditionally while in office — and some say it’s downright illegal, because of the emoluments clause. from the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who argue that the emoluments clause prohibits Trump’s businesses from accepting payments from foreign governments. Bell agrees with the argument. “It’s a pretty clear-cut example of impropriety, » . «This is not like politics as usual. The rules and the lines are being pushed so far and this seemed to be so clear to me.» Monday’s projection piece is just the latest in Bell’s personal gallery of anti-Trump art — as well as the burgeoning anti-Trump artistic movement. In January, during the week of the inauguration, Manhattan’s the Untitled Space gallery hosted a show called featuring paintings like Fahren Feingold’s Awol Erizku, the artist behind, has a new show called “Make America Great Again” that is. And. In an era when everyone from to is excitedly declaring themselves “the resistance” to a, artists are no exception. The question that remains is whether artists have a responsibility to try to catalyze concrete change with their art — or whether the role of the artist is to offer catharsis to everyone else. In other words, .
