Trump Presidency Comes With Unprecedented Conflict-of-Interest Questions

President-Elect Donald Trump’s long history as a businessman poses new and unprecedented questions about his role in private affairs as president. No law prevents Trump from being involved in his private company, the Trump Organization, while serving in the White House. So far, Trump has not gone the more traditional route of giving his holdings to an independent manager, which raises questions of conflicts of interests over his businesses’ many financial and foreign ties. “Trump’s business empire of hotels, golf courses and licensing deals in the U.S. and abroad, some of which have benefitted from tax breaks or government subsidies, represents an ethical minefield for a commander in chief who would oversee the U.S. budget and foreign relations, some analysts say,” writes the Washington Post. In financial disclosure filings, Trump has listed involvements in more than 500 companies, the ethical implications of which are “troubling,” says Ken Gross, a former elections enforcement official and lawyer who has advised presidential candidates from both parties. “The obvious solution is to sell those interests,” Gross said. But “removing himself or his family from the perception of self or family interest may prove difficult.” In the run-up to the election, Trump said he would pay little mind to his businesses if he were in the White House. “If I become president, I couldn’t care less about my company. It’s peanuts,” he said during a January debate. He has said he will hand the businesses over to a blind trust run by his children. But giving his family control “doesn’t necessarily remove him from those issues for political purposes,” said Jan Witold Baran, partner at Wiley Rein. “His name is on the business.”