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| Donald Trump: I am leaving my business interests 'in total' | Donald Trump: I am leaving my business interests 'in total' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Donald Trump has announced that he will be “leaving” his business interests “in total” in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest once he becomes president. | Donald Trump has announced that he will be “leaving” his business interests “in total” in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest once he becomes president. |
| The president-elect, who has been criticised by constitutional lawyers and ethics counsellors for refusing to give up ownership of his business empire, said in a series of tweets on Wednesday morning that he would hold a press conference on 15 December to announce the details. | The president-elect, who has been criticised by constitutional lawyers and ethics counsellors for refusing to give up ownership of his business empire, said in a series of tweets on Wednesday morning that he would hold a press conference on 15 December to announce the details. |
| “I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the president-elect wrote. | “I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the president-elect wrote. |
| “While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as president, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses.” | “While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as president, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses.” |
| He added: “Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The presidency is a far more important task!” | He added: “Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The presidency is a far more important task!” |
| Trump told the New York Times last week his brand “is certainly a hotter brand than it was before,” and his attitude towards his business empire has raised concerns about conflicts of interest once he takes office. | |
| “As far as the, you know, potential conflict of interests, though, I mean I know that from the standpoint, the law is totally on my side, meaning, the president can’t have a conflict of interest,” he told the paper. “And I understand why the president can’t have a conflict of interest now because everything a president does in some ways is like a conflict of interest.” | |
| He added: “In theory, I could run my business perfectly, and then run the country perfectly. And there’s never been a case like this where somebody’s had, like, if you look at other people of wealth, they didn’t have this kind of asset and this kind of wealth, frankly. It’s just a different thing.” | |
| Scores of international politicians and business partners flocked to Trump Tower in Manhattan after Trump’s election, many of the meetings raising unprecedented questions about how Trump could fairly work with foreign leaders who might try and curry his favor through business. | |
| Shortly after the election, the president-elect met with business partners from India who are building Trump hotels in the country, although he had promised to cede control of his company to his children. Dozens of foreign diplomats visited Trump’s hotel in Washington, DC after the election, the Washington Post reported. | |
| “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’” an unnamed diplomat told the Post. | |
| Many scholars have pointed to the Constitution’s “emoluments clause”, which prohibits public officials from taking payments “of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state”. | |
| “Trump was totally wrong when he said the conflict of interest doesn’t apply to me,” Norman Eisen, a former ethics counsellor to the Obama administration, told the Guardian earlier this week. “It shows he doesn’t know the constitution. The most fundamental conflict clause in the US constitution is the prohibition on emoluments on payments, presents or other things of value being given to American political officials including the president.” | |
| Eisen, now a fellow at the Brookings Institution, added: “Because of [Trump’s] international investments he gets these payments, presents and things of value and he’ll be in violation of the constitution by the moment he takes the oath of office.” |