Trump’s swamp
The president-elect should follow the advice of the Office of Government Ethics.
When Jimmy Carter was elected president, he put his peanut farm into a blind trust. An independent trustee had the authority to rent or sell the property without Carter’s approval. The family farm, which Carter worked with his own hands, was sacrificed for the sake of public ethics and avoiding conflicts of interest.
Donald Trump’s business interests ain’t peanuts.
The president-elect has business interests across the globe. The full scale of his financial interests remains largely unknown because he never released tax returns.
It is unprecedented in our nation’s history for the president to maintain these corridors for personal profit.
Trump’s business interests create avenues for bribery, risk-distorting presidential priorities and potentially violate the Constitution.
On Wednesday, Trump announced over Twitter that he would remove himself “completely out of business operations.” That vague promise doesn’t go far enough.
For the sake of the nation and his own presidency, Trump should divest his business. That, by the way, is what the Office of Government Ethics has recommended.
In other words: Mr. Trump, drain your swamp.
There are seven weeks until the inauguration, and ethical questions already are appearing.
Foreign diplomats are going out of their way to stay at Trump-branded hotels in an attempt to curry favor with and access to the next president. The cost for rooms at Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel has spiked to five times the normal rate. Those dollars will eventually end up in Trump’s own bank account.
During the campaign, the Clinton Global Initiative became a target for Trump’s accusations of crooked, insider dealing. Give money, get access. Now, by extension it’s book a top-dollar event at Mar-a-lago, and curry favor of the Trump family.
We’re also troubled by the presidentelect being unwilling — or unable — to break out of a mindset that puts his personal profit ahead of national interests.
Even before the ink was dry on ballots, Trump met with Brexit leader Nigel Farage. In their limited time together, guess what came up? Our presidentelect was upset about wind farms that are within sight of his Aberdeenshire golf resort in Scotland. As bad as using his elected office to lobby on behalf of his business interests, Trump’s spokesperson after the meeting denied that the personal issues were talked about.
There’s an easy way to eliminate the temptation to mix national interests with business: Divest the holdings.
There may be moments when policy that helps the nation hurts Trump’s bottom line. Voters deserve a president who won’t hesitate to put America first.
And the law demands it. The Constitution prohibits the president from receiving payments, or emoluments, from a foreign state.
Richard W. Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, has stated that Trump opens himself to impeachment if he’s caught violating the emoluments clause.
Whether his multi-billion dollar loan from the Bank of China, or his hotel holdings in foreign nations, Trump leaves far too many opportunities for adversarial powers to slip Yuans, Rubles or Euros into his pocket. Even die-hard Republicans are starting to worry.
“We’ll see if it works or not. I hope it does. I trust it will. But if it didn’t, he’ll pay a horrific political price,” U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, told Politico.
He very well should.