# Why is Trump's Senior Campaign offical holding high-level meetings in the White House? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 3, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614 "2017-11-03T18:20:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614/61 "2017-11-04T02:30:24Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > It’s illegal for certain employees\* of the executive branch to engage in political activities. IFIAK, she is not an employee of the executive branch, but I could be wrong. > > \*“except the president, vice-president, and certain designated high-level officials of that branch”, according to wikipedia. My understanding is that Donald Trump has a personal exemption as President. But he can’t extend it to other people. So he can’t let a member of his campaign staff do campaign activities from the White House (or any other government office). They’re not even allowed to make phone calls from inside a government vehicle. There’s supposed to be a complete separation between what politicians do as part of their job and what they do as part of their election campaigns. As far as I can tell, Lara Trump has no government position. She is employed by the Trump re-election campaign. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614/62 "2017-11-04T02:40:27Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > My understanding is that Donald Trump has a personal exemption as President. But he can’t extend it to other people. So he can’t let a member of his campaign staff do campaign activities from the White House (or any other government office). They’re not even allowed to make phone calls from inside a government vehicle. There’s supposed to be a complete separation between what politicians do as part of their job and what they do as part of their election campaigns. > > As far as I can tell, Lara Trump has no government position. She is employed by the Trump re-election campaign. Perhaps, but you asked about the Hatch act. What you’re talking about is not in the Hatch Act. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614/63 "2017-11-04T02:57:04Z")
Bricker’s right. It’s not the Hatch Act which prohibits the use of government offices for campaigning activities. It’s an older law that predates the Hatch Act: > [@](#): > > 18 U.S. Code § 607 - Place of solicitation - It shall be unlawful for any person to solicit or receive a donation of money or other thing of value in connection with a Federal, State, or local election from a person who is located in a room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties by an officer or employee of the United States. This is the law that got Al Gore in trouble. Unlike the Hatch Act, which makes an exemption for the President and Vice President, this law prohibits anyone from conducting campaign business inside a Federal government building. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614/64 "2017-11-04T03:00:56Z")
Did Lara Trump solicit or receive a donation of money or other thing of value during her meetings? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614/65 "2017-11-04T16:36:14Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Your love of “official” is pretty carefully delineated, isn’t it? The meetings offend you because they were “official” meetings in the White House. But when asked what “official” law regulation or policy is broken, and you immediately disclaim the importance of “official,” pointing out how things can be unethical without breaking an official regulation. :rolleyes: This is one of the silliest objections ever. That’s like saying that somebody is hypocritical for objecting to white supremacist ideology even though they don’t mind the Presidential residence being called the “White House”. The same adjective can have different connotations and implications in different contexts, and using the same adjective in different contexts in the same statement doesn’t necessarily make the statement self-contradictory. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614/66 "2017-11-04T16:41:29Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Would it surprise you to learn that David Axelrod hosted meetings in the White House when he was “chief campaign strategist,” for the 2012 campaign? In the first place, I don’t know of anyone claiming that the Obama Administration is a flawless exemplar of unfailingly irreproachable political conduct. In the second place, let’s see your cite for this assertion so we can judge what it really amounts to; after all, David Axelrod was at different times an official (oh noes! that word again!) White House senior political adviser and a senior campaign adviser during the Obama Administration. You may perhaps have got a bit confused about what meetings were being held where when. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614/67 "2017-11-04T19:09:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Bricker’s right. It’s not the Hatch Act which prohibits the use of government offices for campaigning activities. It’s an older law that predates the Hatch Act: > > > [@](#): > > > > 18 U.S. Code § 607 - Place of solicitation - It shall be unlawful for any person to solicit or receive a donation of money or other thing of value in connection with a Federal, State, or local election from a person who is located in a room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties by an officer or employee of the United States. > > This is the law that got Al Gore in trouble. Unlike the Hatch Act, which makes an exemption for the President and Vice President, this law prohibits anyone from conducting campaign business inside a Federal government building. Not as I read it. It prohibits soliciting or receiving money or other things of value. it doesn’t prohibit “conducting campaign business.” Does it? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614/68 "2017-11-05T04:05:38Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Perhaps, but you asked about the Hatch act. What you’re talking about is not in the Hatch Act. Actually, no. What I asked was this: > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Isn’t it illegal to conduct political campaign activities inside a government office? I then wrote this: > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I thought that was covered by the Hatch Act. As I’ve acknowledged I was wrong on that. It wasn’t the Hatch Act; it was a different law. The central point is whether or not the act is illegal not what the name of the law is that makes it illegal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-trumps-senior-campaign-offical-holding-high-level-meetings-in-the-white-house/800614.md?page=3)