The Kuwaiti embassy gets a lesson in Donald Trump diplomacy

Despite hosting its annual National Day celebration at the Four Seasons in Georgetown, the Embassy of Kuwait allegedly canceled its plans and rescheduled the event for the Trump International Hotel after allegedly being pressured by the Trump Organization, according to a story by ThinkProgress on Monday.

In a phone conversation with the site, Ambassador Salem Al-Sabah confirmed that the National Day event had been moved. Although he denied having been pressured into making that decision, he eventually acknowledged that he had “lots of friends” and “may have” spoken to someone from the Trump Organization after the election.

For Trump’s sake, there’d better not be more to this story, because —

The Stock Act of 2012 could pose a lot of problems for the president-elect

“By walking onto the inaugural platform outside the Capitol and putting his hand on a Bible on Jan. 20, Donald Trump may be stepping closer to committing a felony than he ever imagined when he launched his unlikely bid to become the nation’s 45th president,” The Huffington Post wrote on Wednesday.

When the Stock Act was passed in 2012, it prohibited the president, members of Congress, and senior executive branch officials from using insider knowledge to personally profit.

“The Stock Act bars the President, the Vice President, and all executive branch employees from: using nonpublic information for private profit; engaging in insider trading; or intentionally influencing an employment decision or practice of a private entity solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation,” wrote the director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, in a letter explaining how he officially guides Congress on these matters.