Trump Jr. denies business conflicts

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Donald Trump Jr., while visiting Indonesia’s capital on Tuesday to promote two Trump-branded resorts, defended his father and their family’s company against allegations that their global business presented conflicts of interest for the president.

The president’s son, an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said the company has walked away from deals that could have reaped tens of millions of dollars so as not to create the appearance of any improprieties.

He also defended his father against any suggestions that the family’s international business interests could affect the president’s foreign policy.

“He wouldn’t make decisions on a country based on a real estate deal,” Trump said. “I would like to shut down that nonsense right here.”

Trump was in Jakarta for a private event with wealthy prospective buyers to promote the sale of residential units at two planned luxury resorts in Indonesia that have yet to be built. He and his billionaire business partner, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, chairman of the MNC Group, held a news conference to extol the virtues of the two Trump-branded resorts, one in Bali and the other at Lido, south of Jakarta. The resorts will include hotels, golf courses and residential units.

After Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, he said in a Twitter post that he would embark on “no new deals.” But the Trump Organization said it was keeping the Indonesia projects because Trump had signed binding contracts with Hary in 2015.

Trump initially reported receiving between $2 million and $10 million for the projects. The agreement does not call for the Trump Organization to put up money.

Also Tuesday, Trump Jr. and Hary said the Lido development will no longer have Chinese financing. MNC had said in May that it hired a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned Metallurgical Corp. of China to build it. Hary said his company and a Chinese bank had discussed a loan, but the effort was dropped.