Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump says he’ll create trust
The president-elect says he doesn’t think the public cares much about his dealings
President-elect will put business assets in the hands of two of his sons.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he won’t be selling his company, virtually assuring that his administration will continue to face questions about potential conflicts between his public duties and private interests.
Instead of divesting his hotels, golf courses, office buildings and other deals, Trump will create a trust for his Trump Organization holdings and turn over management to his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric.
Trump will have nothing to do with any decisions involving the company, and it will avoid any foreign deals while he is president, said Sheri Dillon, a lawyer for Trump who outlined the plan during a news conference the president-elect held at Trump Tower.
Ethics experts questioned whether the steps Trump was taking would significantly reduce the potential for conflicts of interest. But Dillon said any further moves, such as selling assets or creating a blind trust, would be unfair and unworkable.
Trump, in a raucous exchange with reporters, said he does not believe the public cares much about his business dealings. He made it clear he would keep ownership of all properties throughout his presidency and planned to resume management of the company when he leaves office.
He also said he had no plans to release his tax returns to provide transparency about his finances, a practice started by Richard Nixon and followed by every subsequent president except Gerald R. Ford.
“The only ones that care about my tax returns are the reporters,” Trump said.
As for voters, he said: “I won. No, I don’t think they care at all.”
He also noted that, as president, he is exempt from the federal conflict-ofinterest law.
“I could actually run my business and run government at the same time,” he said. “I don’t like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to.”
The government’s chief ethics officer criticized that assertion and called Trump’s plan “perplexing.”
Although the main federal law on conflicts doesn’t apply to the president, that doesn’t mean no conflicts will occur, Walter Shaub, director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said in remarks at the Brookings Institution.
“For that reason, it’s been the consistent policy of the executive branch that the president should act as though the financial conflict of interest law applied,” Shaub said. “Stepping back from running his business is meaningless from a conflict-of-interest perspective.”
A leading outside legal expert agreed.
“I think there’s going to be lawsuits. I think there’s the possibility, if it’s serious enough, of impeachment proceedings down the road. So I don’t think this begins to solve the problem,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of law at the University of California at Irvine.
Trump appeared to concede that he could face actual conflicts, if not legal ones, when he insisted he had no business dealings in Russia.
“We could make deals in Russia very easily if we wanted to,” Trump said. “I just don’t want to, because I think that would be a conflict.”
With more than 500 corporations, hundreds of millions in outstanding debts and real-estate deals from Dubai to a hotel down the street from the White House, Trump’s businesses represent unprecedented potential conflicts with his duties as president.
To deal with those issues, Dillon said Trump would resign from any positions with his companies and turn over control to his sons and a company vice president, Allen Weisselberg.
Dillon compared Trump’s empire to the fortune held by Nelson Rockefeller when he became vice president in 1974, “but at that time, no one was so concerned.”