Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump ignited a firestorm on the Internet Tuesday when he reasserted his support for the controversial practice of eminent domain, telling Fox News's Bret Baier that it is "a wonderful thing," reported Breitbart.
"I think eminent domain is wonderful if you're building a highway...and you're going to be blocked by a holdout" that could prevent the project from being built, Trump told Baier, explaining that "nobody knows this better than I do because I built a lot of buildings in Manhattan."
He continued: "I think eminent domain for massive projects, for instance, you're going to create thousands of jobs, and you have somebody that's in the way, and you pay that person far more - don't forget, eminent domain, they get a lot of money, and you need a house in a certain location, because you're going to build this massive development that's going to employ thousands of people, or you're going to build a factory, that without this little house, you can't build the factory. I think eminent domain is fine."
Broadly understood, eminent domain is the power of the government to "seize private property without the owner's consent" and is permitted under the Fifth Amendment as long as just compensation is provided, explains Columbia University.
Privately owned property is usually taken when the government needs to construct large projects for public use, like a highway. However, with the 2004 Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London, a precedent was set allowing property to be transferred to a private owner for the purpose of private economic development if it involves benefits to the public.
When asked about Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders' criticism of the Kelo ruling, Trump defended the decision, arguing that the person whose house is being taken ends up getting "four, five, six, ten times what it's worth."
"Most of the time, they just want money. It's very rarely that the say 'I love my house. I love my house. It's the greatest thing there.' Because these people can go buy a house now that's five times bigger, in a better location, so eminent domain, when it comes to jobs, roads, the public good, I think it's a wonderful thing," Trump said.
"I'll be honest with you, and remember, you're not taking property... You're paying a fortune for that property. Those people can move two blocks away into a much nicer house," he added.
Trump's support and use of eminent domain professionally has drawn criticism from a number of conservatives, including a 2016 presidential rival, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who recently called Trump a fake conservative with an "authoritarian concept" of how government should work. He cited an instance in which Trump supposedly tried to use eminent domain laws to take a woman's house so he could build a parking lot for one of his casinos, as HNGN previously reported.
