Here’s one wall President-elect Donald Trump should build even before he takes the oath of office — the wall between his business empire and his presidency.
Late last month, Trump said, through a series of tweets, that on Dec. 15 he would announce a plan that involved him “leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country. . . . ’’ Legal documents, he added, “are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations.’’ The country is about to find out what “completely’’ means to Trump.
To legal ethics experts, it means establishment of a blind trust, where all holdings are liquidated and placed in new investments administered by an independent trustee. Trump seems unwilling to follow that course. During a post-election meeting at The New York Times, the president-elect said selling off everything would be a “hard thing to do.’’ In recent days, Trump said he sold off all his stock holdings in June. So far, he has provided no proof.
As an alternative to liquidation, New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin suggested Trump hire a “corporate monitor’’ — what Sorkin described as “an independent overseer with unfettered access to your organizations who will provide regular reports to the public about any possible instances of conflict.’’ He proposed Kenneth R. Feinberg, the lawyer who oversaw the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and administered One Fund Boston, which distributed money to victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Even Feinberg acknowledges critics could complain the monitor is “in bed with the guy paying him.’’ But at least there would be someone responsible for telling voters who else is in the bedroom. According to a CNN analysis, Trump owns, or has a position in, more than 500 companies, providing limitless opportunity for entanglements.
Many have already been reported. As recounted by The Atlantic: When Trump spoke on the phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, there was speculation not only about what that could mean for US relations with China, but also what it could mean for a prospective Trump Organization real estate project in Taiwan. When Trump spoke on the phone with Turkish president Recep Erdogan, The Huffington Post reported, Trump praised his business partners in Istanbul to Erdogan.
A Trump-branded building in the former Soviet republic of Georgia was fast-tracked after Trump’s election. The government of Bahrain booked the Trump International Hotel in Washington for a reception to celebrate the anniversary of its king. To further complicate matters, Trump does not own the hotel site; he leases it from the General Services Administration, whose next administrator will be appointed by Trump.
According to The New York Times, Trump had a post-election meeting with British politician Nigel Farage, in which he encouraged Farage to oppose the kind of offshore wind farms that Trump believes “will mar the pristine view from one of his two Scottish golf courses.’’ The Times also reported that when Trump met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, Ivanka Trump looked on — just as she is closing a licensing deal with a Japanese apparel company whose largest shareholder is the Development Bank of Japan, which is wholly owned by the Japanese government.
That’s only the tip of the Trump Empire iceberg and its potential for conflicts of interest. Trump is said to be considering transferring responsibility for his businesses to his two sons while retaining some stake in the ventures. But that may not solve anything: So far, it’s hard to see where the family’s business interests end and their combined political interests begin.
It all points to the need for a wall formidable enough to end any reasonable perception of self-enrichment as Trump enters the White House. Like all walls, it comes with a cost — one that Trump should be willing to pay. After all,he chose to run for president. He needs to reassure the American people that he won’t get richer off the job they elected him to do and that their interests are his only priority.
