He won’t even meet standard of Nixon

Politicians love to evoke former Presidents in speeches, whether President John Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” or President Franklin Roosevelt’s “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” In his press conference Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump took a different tack — by appearing to echo President Richard Nixon’s statement that “when the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”

Despite elaborate stagecraft — piles of folders purportedly containing signatures distancing himself from pieces of his business — Trump took no meaningful action to deal with the massive conflicts of interest generated by his ownership of the Trump Organization. He is correct that he is not legally required to remove all conflicts of interest. But just because it is not illegal to have conflicts does not mean it is right or moral.

The only way for Trump to avoid massive conflicts of interest is to sell his business outside the family and then place his assets in a true blind trust, where he will not have any way of knowing or influencing how the assets are allocated. By refusing to divest, Trump is breaking decades of precedent, just as he did with his refusal to release his tax returns.

With his failure to address conflicts, he has failed to live up to the ethical standard of past Presidents including Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and all others of the past 40 years. As to his taxes, even Nixon released his tax returns under audit. But apparently not every President can live up to the moral standard of Richard Nixon.

Trump’s proposed solution to remove himself from the company’s management is just window dressing. He will continue to own his businesses, which will continue to have foreign interests.

Despite the supposed firewalls he is putting in place, it is absurd to believe he will have no knowledge of his business when he will continue to own it, and it will be run by his children. The conflicts fundamentally arise from his ownership, not his management. As long as he profits when the company does, he will have an incentive to take actions that benefit the company rather than just focusing on what is good for the country.

He claims that he will only know what he reads in newspapers about his companies. But newspapers report which foreign dignitaries are staying at his new Washington, D.C., hotel, just blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. We have already seen reports of foreign nationals switching their bookings to the Trump International Hotel in an attempt to curry favor with the future President.

The big issue, which he seems to ignore, is that even if he is not involved in the day-to-day running of the business, he can still make it money. Many of his businesses have his name on them in giant gold letters. He will know what they are and what legislation, regulations or actions will benefit or hurt them. Only divestiture would clear this conflict.

Trump will also face serious questions about whether he is violating the Constitution by taking payments from foreign governments on a daily basis, questions the steps announced Wednesday did little to address. His attorney dismissed this by pointing out that no previous President has had to deal with questions about violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause. And she is right, because previous Presidents took action to avoid violating the Constitution.

We recognize this is a tough subject for Trump. He has spent his entire life focused on making as much money as possible for himself, while all previous Presidents had at least some background in public service. This is a hard shift to make, especially this quickly.

But Trump can address much of the difficulty by turning the businesses over immediately to a trustee, who could resolve the sales and other tough questions that arise.

More fundamentally, no one made him run for President. Public service is a sacrifice. That is the choice Trump made when he threw his hat into the ring. He has had a long time to decide how he would deal with his business interests to best serve the American people and not himself. He chose not to.