Hi John,

When was the last time a foreign government gave you a multimillion dollar gift? Well, if you're President Trump, you can answer "really recently, thanks." 

Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. government accepted a Boeing 747 from the government of Qatar, a gift that is supposedly valued anywhere from 200 to 400 million dollars. And President Trump has ordered the plane to be retrofitted (at incredible expense to taxpayers) as Air Force One. 

Look, we aren't dumb. We know that gifts to a president rarely come without expectations of a quid pro quo. And our founders knew that too. Which is why the Constitution, in what's known as the Emoluments Clause of Article 1, says that Congress has to sign off on any significant gifts to the President or other federal officials from a foreign state.

Accepting this gift doesn't just enrich the president; it undermines our democracy by placing the personal benefit of the president above the needs of the people. And that's how coups happen: not with dramatic actions but with the small, steady erosion of norms and laws every day, until the only thing left is authoritarianism. 

But we, the people, have power. Our voices have power. We know that pressure works — Congresspeople themselves have admitted that calls and letters from their constituents matter. So let's make our voices heard and tell Congress we demand oversight and accountability of the executive branch.