Trump to sideline his business
HEADING OFF CRITICISM: Billionaire says daughter and sons could take charge of business empire
DONALD Trump on Wednesday sought to head off criticism that his vast business empire poses an unprecedented conflict of interest for an incoming United States president, even as he comes under attack for packing his cabinet with fellow billionaires.
In one of his trademark pre-dawn “tweet storms”, the Manhattan real estate mogul promised that he would reveal a plan next month to put aside his “great business in total to focus on running the country.
The 70-year-old tycoon did not say who would take over his multibillion-dollar global property and luxury branding interests, but said his children would be present at a Dec 15 news conference.
He had said his daughter Ivanka and sons Eric and Donald Jr could take day-to-day charge, but it remained unclear what he would do with his personal stake.
“While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as president, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses,” he tweeted, seeking to get ahead of the burgeoning ethics controversy.
US law does not require Trump to give up his business portfolio, although the Constitution states no federal official can receive a gift or “emolument” from a foreign government.
Some previous presidents had placed their investments in a blind trust, but they were not required to do so and Trump has said since winning the election early last month that his lawyers believed it was unnecessary.
However, critics argued that it would be an unprecedented ethical conflict for Trump to maintain interest in properties spanning the globe — investments that rely partly on goodwill from foreign governments and regulators.
Even on home soil, his company has been attacked for marketing the new Trump International Hotel in Washington, just blocks from the White House, to foreign diplomats. His chief of staff, Reince Priebus, has insisted there were “smart ethics lawyers” working on a plan to resolve this issue.
Trump has admitted the hotel’s brand is probably “hotter” now that he is to be president, but has vaguely promised to “phase out” his handson, check-signing role in Trump Organisation business.
The Republican is building a cabinet team that will join him in the capital after his Jan 20 inauguration with a mission to “drain the swamp” of Washington corruption.
So far, aside from former generals sidelined by President Barack Obama’s administration, Trump has focused on recruiting super-rich conservative figures from Wall Street and private business. A Doctors Without Borders AFP pic
world — 19.2 percent according to the United Nations AIDS agency — with more than seven million people living with the virus.
“A vaccine is critical for South Africa. Every day, one thousand people are getting infected and most of them are young women and men so we need to find a solution,” said Glenda Gray, president of the country’s Medical Research Council.
The vaccine has been adapted for the HIV strain prevalent in southern
On Tuesday, Trump dined at a Michelin-starred restaurant with Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and private equity baron.
Although Romney’s own 2012 presidential campaign foundered partly because he was tagged as a member of an aloof elite, Trump is considering him as a possible secretary of state.
The latest figures Trump has nominated for senior roles, Wall Street veteran Steven Mnuchin and investor Wilbur Ross, are both billionaires and richer than Romney.
Trump’s defeated Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, was attacked during the campaign for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars for giving private speeches to Goldman Sachs bankers.
But Trump, having named former Goldman banker Steve Bannon as his chief strategist, nominated another, Mnuchin, for the key role of Treasury secretary.
Mnuchin was a partner in Goldman
in Eshowe, South Africa, on Wednesday. Africa from one used in a trial of 16,000 people in Thailand in 2009, which reduced the risk of infection by more than 30 per cent for 3½ years after the first jab.
The safety of the South African vaccine has been tested successfully over 18 months on 252 volunteers. The new study aims to test its effectiveness as a virus-killer.
Vaccines work by priming the body to respond with germ-fighting antibodies whenever a virus or bacteria Sachs before he launched a fund backed by Democratic Party supporter George Soros. He financed Hollywood blockbusters, including Avatar and Suicide Squad.
Trump picked Ross, known for buying failing steel and coal firms and turning them into saleable investments, as commerce secretary.
Democrats were quick to slam the hirings. Senator Sherrod Brown, the senior Democrat on the banking committee, attacked Mnuchin’s hedge fund background, declaring: “This isn’t draining the swamp, it’s stocking it with alligators.”
And Senator Elizabeth Warren, a scourge of Wall Street excesses, said Mnuchin’s hiring showed Trump had “every intention of running Washington to benefit himself and his rich buddies”.
Democratic representative Adam Schiff tweeted: “We need a president whose only interest is the national interest. The only way to prevent future conflicts of interest is to fully divest!”
Trump has vowed to cut corporate taxes and encourage multinationals to repatriate their earnings, and plans to scrap the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reforms. AFP invades. But the AIDS-causing virus is stealthy and quick to mutate to avoid being targeted.
“If we have a 50 per cent efficacy rate, we would consider this an effective vaccine,” said Gray. It could take five to 19 years to scale up production, “and we need money to take (it) to a world level.”
Even if the new vaccine proves effective, experts warned that it was vital to remain vigilant in the fight against HIV. AFP