Trump must liquidate his world empire

This editorial first appeared in USA Today

Donald Trump seriously thinks he can serve as president of the United States while maintaining a worldwide real estate empire.

Because he is already wealthy, he argues, Americans need not worry about his trying to get richer while in office. Because his children will be running the business, he will be walled off from its decisions. And because he is forgoing the annual $400,000 presidential salary, Americans can rest assured that he will put their interests ahead of his.

Trump will soon find out how wrong he is. The problem isn’t just that he stands to make money from the increased visibility his businesses will have thanks to his presidency.

It is that he has deep financial ties in foreign countries that will vastly complicate diplomacy and the effort to advance U.S. interests.

Trump won’t be able to deal with China or Germany without the world being reminded that he is in debt to banks in those countries. He won’t be able to deal with South Korea without friends and foes questioning his motives given his ties to a major defense and construction company there.

If Trump does not liquidate his holdings as quickly as practically possible and select a trustee to invest his wealth within a blind trust, he threatens to hobble his presidency in the same way Bill Clinton’s libido crippled his.

Short of a real blind trust, his businesses will become a constant source of controversy and a distraction from the agenda America voters sent him to Washington to enact.

Trump has business partners around the globe, many of them deeply enmeshed in their nations’ politics, their governments’ contracting decisions and—in many cases—local scandals or lawsuits.

If Trump does not set up a genuine blind trust, he will soon wish he had. And American voters will soon wonder why they gave the highest office in the land to someone with so many impediments to governing effectively.