Legal experts say Trump official broke law by saying 'Buy Tesla' stock but don't expect a crackdown

NEW YORK (AP) — When a White House adviser in the first Trump administration told TV viewers to “Go buy Ivanka stuff," top government lawyers sprang into action, telling her she had violated ethics rules and warning her not to do it again.

Government ethics experts have varying opinions on whether the 2017 criticism of Kellyanne Conway went far enough, but many agree such violations now might not even draw an official rebuke.

A week after President Donald Trump turned the White House lawn into a Tesla infomercial for Elon Musk’s cars, a second sales pitch by a U.S. official occurred, this time for Tesla stock.

“It will never be this cheap,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday. “Buy Tesla."

Government ethics experts say Lutnick broke a 1989 law prohibiting federal employees from using “public office for private gain," later detailed to include a ban on ”endorsements." Although presidents are generally exempt from government ethics rules, most federal employees are not and are often punished for violations, including rebukes like the one Conway got.

As of Friday, no public action had been taken against Lutnick and it was unclear whether he would suffer a similar fate.

“They’re not even thinking of ethics,” said Trump critic and former Republican White House ethics czar Richard Painter of administration officials.

Painter has equally low expectations of that other possible brake to future violations — public opinion: ”I don't know if people care."

In his first term, Trump opened his hotel near the Oval Office to foreign ambassadors and lobbyists in what many legal scholars argued was a violation of a constitutional ban against presidents receiving payments or gifts that could distort public policy for private gain. His company launched a new hotel chain called “America Idea” in hopes of cashing in on his celebrity. Trump even once proposed holding a G-7 meeting of world leaders at his then-struggling Doral golf resort.

But the reaction to Conway’s “Ivanka stuff” comment suggested certain lines couldn't be crossed.

Within days of Conway's TV comments, the head of the federal ethics agency, the Office of Government Ethics, wrote a letter to the White House saying Trump's adviser may have broken the law and urging a probe. A White House lawyer then met with Conway to remind her of the law and reported to the ethics office that she had assured him she would abide by it in future.

But this time, there is no head of the Office of Government Ethics. He was fired by Trump. Ditto for the inspector generals of various agencies who would head any investigation.

“What is likely to happen now? I really don’t know,” said Kedric Payne, chief lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center, a non-profit watchdog that sent a letter to the government ethics office on Friday calling for an investigation. "We no longer have the head of the Office of Government Ethics to push the Commerce Department to make sure the secretary acknowledges the law."

Payne said Lutnick's comment on TV may seem like a small transgression but it could snowball into a bigger problem if not punished.

“It starts with one TV appearance, but can develop into multiple officials asking people to support companies and products,” Payne said. “If there are no consequences, you get into a danger zone of a corruption.”

Trump critics point to other signs that Trump is careless with the law and ethical norms, citing his pardons for Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, a decision to allow his Trump Organization to strike business deals abroad and his attack on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act banning U.S. company bribes abroad to win business.

When it comes endorsing products, presidents used to be far more circumspect.

Their comments were mostly quick asides expressing opinions of taste, such as when Harry Truman called Pillsbury flour the “finest" or John F. Kennedy said United Airlines was “reliable.”

Ronald Reagan famously enthused about his jelly beans habit, remarking that they were the “perfect snack.”

Trump had five Teslas lined up in the White House driveway last week as he praised Musk's company. Then he slipped into a red Model S he had targeted for personal purchase, exclaiming, “Wow. That’s beautiful.”

“Presidents are allowed to have personal opinions on products they like and dislike,” said ethics lawyer Kathleen Clark, referring to the Truman through Reagan examples. ”But what Trump did was transform the White House into a set for advertising the products of a private company."

"It’s the difference between holding an extravaganza and holding an opinion."

In the aftermath of the Tesla White House event, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and three other senators wrote a letter to the Office of Government Ethics saying that, while presidents are exempt from ethics law banning endorsements, Elon Musk isn’t and calling for an investigation.

A spokeswoman from Warren's office said the government ethics office had not yet responded about what it planned to do about the White House Tesla endorsement. The Office of Government Ethics itself said it would not comment on either the Warren letter or Lutnick's TV appearance.

The Commerce Department did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.

Asked whether Lutnick would be reprimanded or an investigation opened, White House spokesman Kush Desai defended Lutnick, lauding “his immensely successful private sector career” and his “critical role on President Trump’s trade and economic team.”

Former White House ethics chief Painter says Democrats have also played loose with the ethics law.

He is harshly critical of the Clinton charity, the Clinton Foundation, which was taking donations from foreign governments when Hillary Clinton was the country's chief diplomat as secretary of state. Painter also blasts former President Joe Biden for not removing his name from a University of Pennsylvania research institute when he was in office even though it appeared to be helping draw donations overseas.

But Painter says the slide from caring about ethics laws and norms to defiance has hit a new low.

“There's been a deterioration in ethics," he said. “What Biden did wasn’t good, but this is worse."

FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk listens as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

A Tesla vechile is seen near a charging station, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, March 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Greenland's people are bracing for another visit from U.S. President Donald Trump's inner circle, with second lady Usha Vance set to travel to the autonomous Danish territory this week as her husband ratchets up talk about U.S. security and “territorial” interests in the vast Arctic island coveted by the administration.

Greenland’s prime minister warned Sunday of “American aggression” and lamented a “mess” caused by the upcoming visit from Vance, who will be accompanied by Trump’s national security adviser and energy secretary. The same day, Vice President JD Vance — her husband — blasted Denmark for “not doing its job” and "not being a good ally."

“So you have to ask yourself: How are we going to solve that problem, solve our own national security?" JD Vance said on Fox News. “If that means that we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do, because he doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us.”

Denmark is a NATO ally of the United States, and northwestern Greenland already houses the U.S. Pituffik military base that falls under the Pentagon's Space Force.

Danish national police on Sunday sent extra personnel and sniffer dogs to Greenland as part of regular security measures taken during visits by dignitaries. A police spokesperson declined to give details, but news reports said dozens were flown in.

Before the president began his second term in January, a visit by Trump's eldest son heightened concerns in Greenland about possible U.S. ambitions. Donald Trump Jr. told its residents that “we’re going to treat you well” — weeks before March 11 elections that had centered on possible independence from Denmark.

Greenlandic news outlet Sermitsiaq posted images of two U.S. Hercules workhorse military aircraft on the tarmac Sunday in Nuuk, the capital, adding that the planes later departed. News reports said four bulletproof cars had also been flown in.

On her visit, Vance will attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race which features about 37 mushers and 444 dogs, her office said.

Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will also be travelling to Greenland, the White House said.

“The U.S. has a vested security interest in the Arctic region and it should not be a surprise the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Energy are visiting a U.S. Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground," said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

Greenland is also in the process of political transition. The pro-business Demokraatit party, which favors a slow path to independence, won a surprise victory in the recent elections, outpacing the two left-leaning parties that formed the last government.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede, who remains in the post until a new government is formed, acknowledged Sunday on Facebook that there is worry on the island.

The visit of "the wife of the United States vice president and the United States president’s highest security adviser cannot be seen only as a private visit,” he said. “We can already see now, how big a mess it’s caused.”

Egede said there would be no official meetings with the U.S. visitors because a new government has yet to be formed.

In an interview in Sermitsiaq, he was quoted as saying that if allied countries “do not speak out loudly about how the USA is treating Greenland, the situation will escalate day by day, and the American aggression will increase."

He called on Greenland's allies to show support, adding that “the only purpose” of a trip by Waltz is “a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood.”

“We have been treated unacceptably,” he wrote on his Facebook account.

The likely next Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Demokraatit, sought to calm nerves and said he was working on building a new coalition government “with the clear goal of creating security for our country and our people.”

“When foreign dignitaries travel to our country on what are called private visits, it rightly causes concern," he wrote on Facebook. “There is no reason to panic. But there is good reason to stand together and to demand respect. I do. And I will continue to do so.”

Trump had mused during his first term about buying the world’s largest island, even as Denmark insisted it wasn’t for sale. The people of Greenland have also firmly rejected Trump’s plans.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. will come to control Greenland while insisting he supports the idea for strategic national security reasons — not with an eye toward American expansionism.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in a statement Sunday reported by Danish broadcaster DR, insisted “the visit from the United States cannot be viewed independently of the public statements that have been made.”

“We want to cooperate with the Americans. But it must be a cooperation based on the fundamental values of sovereignty and respect between countries and peoples,” she was quoted as saying.

In Brussels, a spokesperson for the European Commission said Denmark, a member of the European Union, had the bloc's full support.

“We will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, the territorial integrity of our borders, and the UN charter. These are universal principles that we stand by, and we will not stop defending them, all the more so if the territorial integrity of our member States of the European Union is questioned,” Anitta Hipper said.

Greenland straddles strategic air and sea routes in the North Atlantic and is home to the Pituffik Space Base, which supports missile warning and space surveillance operations.

Greenland, whose population of 56,000 people are mostly from Indigenous Inuit backgrounds, also has large deposits of the rare-earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology.

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Keaten reported from Geneva and Gera from Warsaw, Poland. Lorne Cook in Brussels and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

Boys play on a frozen beach in Nuuk, Greenland, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

FILE - Usha Vance attends a campaign rally, Nov. 1, 2024, in Selma, N.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce, File)