SONS OF ANARCHY
Trump: My boys will run biz
PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump said Wednesday he would turn over his sprawling business empire to a trust controlled by his two adult sons, as part of a plan to help him avoid conflicts of interest as commander-in-chief.
Trump, however, said his Trump Organization would continue to pursue deals in the U.S., although not abroad, while he is President.
Government ethics watchdogs immediately pounced on Trump's plan as “woefully inadequate.”
The President-elect, as well as an attorney he’d hired, Sheri Dillon of the Morgan Lewis global law firm, outlined the steps during a press conference at Trump Tower Wednesday morning — the mogul’s first in nearly six months.
Trump explained he would put “complete control” of the company in the hands of his two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, as well as Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg.
“They’re going to be running it in a very professional manner. They’re not going to discuss it with me,” he said, before calling on Dillon to explain the details.
Trump also pointed to a stack of documents next to him at the lectern, claiming he “signed” all of them as part of his efforts to bring about the legal transfer of corporate power to his kin.
Dillon said the Trump Organization would also appoint an ethics adviser to its management team, who must approve deals that could raise concerns about conflicts of interest.
Trump also plans to donate money spent by foreign governments at his hotels to the U.S. Treasury, Dillon said.
Trump has faced myriad questions regarding potential conflicts of interest, including concerns that foreign governments — particularly those where he has business ties, like Russia, Turkey, the Philippines and Argentina — could seek to buy his favor.
And his new hotel in Washington, D.C, just blocks from the White House, had been one of many elements of his business under scrutiny, as reports continually emerged indicating foreign diplomats were choosing to stay there in an apparent attempt to curry favor.
Some ethics experts have said foreign governments spending money at the hotel could run afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bans foreign gifts or payments. Dillon said the
hotel payments would not, because it’s a “fair-value exchange.”
Trump also said he’d rejected a $2-billion real estate contract with an Emirati billionaire developer whom he’d previously dealt with, because he did “not want to take advantage of” his new power.
“I didn’t have to turn it down, because as you know, I have a noconflict situation because I’m President,” he said, referring to a law that makes the President exempt from some conflict-of-interest laws that apply to nearly all executive branch members requiring them to sell off business interests.
“So I could actually run my business and run the government at the same time,” he said. “But I don’t like the way that looks.”
“But I could if I wanted to,” Trump said.
Even before that unusual rejoinder, Trump’s announcement contradicted his previous vows that his company would do “no new deals” at all as long as he was in the White House.
Since Trump sold all his stocks last year, the Trump trust will hold only business assets and liquid assets such as cash, Dillon said.
The plan fell short of what multiple government ethics experts, as well as the federal Office of Government Ethics, had urged Trump to do: Sell his assets and put the resulting cash in a blind trust overseen by an independent entity or manager — as prior Presidents and other lawmakers have done.
But Dillon said that option was not practical, explaining that Trump “should not be expected to destroy the company he built.”
Ethics groups ripped the President-elect.
In a press conference following Trump’s, Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Schaub said Trump’s plan “doesn’t meet the standard” set by past Presidents and would leave the President-elect vulnerable to “suspicions of corruption.”
Schaub also reiterated his past statement that Trump must sell off his holdings to resolve any prospective conflict-of-interest.
Common Cause’s vice president for policy and litigation, Paul S. Ryan, ripped the arrangement as “woefully inadequate” and said it would “dog his administration and severely undermine the public’s faith in government.”
“The American public must now demand complete transparency of the Trump Organization and President-elect Trump’s finances,” Ryan said. “Such transparency is America’s only hope for protecting itself against conflicts of interest.”
Despite that very serious criticism, Trump appeared to treat the subject matter lightly, even joking at one point about his imagined reaction to his sons if, at the end of two terms in the White House, the business was foundering.
“I hope at the end of eight years I’ll come back and say, ‘Oh, you did a good job,’” Trump said.
“Otherwise, if they do a bad job, I’ll say, ‘You’re fired.’”