kingdragonfly:

Tinkerisk:

 

Why Hanseatic citizens have not accepted medals and decorations since 1270

Not that any American seems to care but the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clause forbids officials from accepting gifts from foreign states without congressional consent.

With Trump accepting foreign gifts, it project the opposite: hierarchy, vanity, and subservience to foreign flattery, undermining the ideal of self-governing civic dignity.

There’s no actual law about it in Hamburg, but the idea that you shouldn’t take honors is still strong.

Trump’s acceptance of gifts might be technically legal, depending on Trump's process and reporting. It still raises moral and civic questions.

That is exactly what I wanted to express. That is why, to me, he is a volatile clown and never a statesman – he is never my master, and I am not his servant. Of course, he can force people (like the Nazis did), but in reality, that only makes him even smaller and more ridiculous.