As the controversial Republican prepares to enter
the White House following his shock US election
win, questions are now being asked about how
the he will juggle his dual roles as head of a
multibillion-dollar international business empire
and president of the United States.
With sprawling investments in hotels, office
towers, apartment buildings, residential real
estate, resorts, golf courses and entertainment,
observers are describing the scale of Mr Trump’s
potential conflicts of interest as “unprecedented”.
While congressmen, senators and other high level
public servants are required to disclose financial
interests and recuse themselves from government
business that could generate a conflict, no such
restriction exists for presidents and vice-
presidents.
As author David Sirota explains, legal exemptions
introduced in 1989 mean all Mr Trump is required
to do is file a standard financial disclosure from
the Office of Government Ethics to the Federal
Election Commission. Mr Trump’s form, which he
filed in 2015, was the longest in the history of the
FEC at 104 pages.
“The scope of Trump’s potential conflicts is vast,”
Sirota writes in the International Business Times .
“He owns stock in defence contractors; on the
campaign trail, he vowed to increase the size of
the US Navy. Trump Palace Condominiums, one of
his subsidiary companies, leases to the federal
government, meaning President Trump is poised
to become his own company’s landlord.
“Trump also owes millions of dollars to Deutsche
Bank — which is currently negotiating a fraud
settlement with the Department of Justice, an
agency which President Trump will oversee.”
Sirota also raises another interesting question:
will Mr Trump have to take his name off his
buildings? “Trump-branded properties could
provide a way for regulators to pierce the
presidential immunity from conflicts laws,” he
writes.
“The 1989 Ethics Reform Act ... prohibits any
senior ‘non-career’ government ‘officer’ from
having their name ‘used’ by any firm involved in
fiduciary arrangements.”
The catch is a rule exempting presidents and
vice-presidents from the category of “officer”, but
a simple rule tweak could cause all sorts of
problems.
It’s not just domestic issues, either. Mr Trump’s
real estate empire is primarily located in the
United States, but also extends to countries such
as South Korea and Turkey. Managing political
relations with such US allies while president risks
creating a curious mix of competing goals.
US media have reported the Trump Organisation
has financial ties with people close to Russian
President Vladimir Putin, who the real estate
mogul praised leadership during his campaign.
“For the record, I have ZERO investments in
Russia,” Mr Trump tweeted in July. The potential
for conflicts of interest from Mr Trump’s business
activities are not limited to countries like Russia.
“The number of problems is actually sort of mind-
boggling,” Trevor Potter, former head of the
Federal Election Commission, told NPR .
The Trump Organisation is not publicly traded, so
many of its activities are closed to scrutiny. The
problem takes on another dimension with Trump,
whose name is inextricably tied to his business
empire.
“It’s unprecedented in the history of the US in part
because we don’t know the scope or the nature of
his many financial ties in particular,” Kathleen
Clark, a law professor at Washington University in
St. Louis, told AFP.
She said one ethical point of particular concern is
that Trump financed his company’s expansion
through debt. “We don’t know to whom he owes
money. In some ways owing money is a much
more significant financial contact than an
investment,” she said.
Mr Potter also pointed out that Mr Trump’s new
hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, just
down the road from the White House, had been
built in the old federal post office building, which
required him to negotiate a lease with the US
government’s General Services Administration.
“You’re going to have a situation where the
president appoints the head of GSA, and then the
president’s most visible asset in Washington is
potentially subject to negotiation with that person
over the terms of the lease and any changes in
the lease,” Potter told NPR.
Mr Trump had pledged during the campaign to
entrust his business to a blind trust which would
wall him off from any say in the company’s
activities, and said he would hand over control of
his business empire to his children if he won.
“If I become president, I couldn’t care less about
my company,” he said during a debate in
January . “It’s peanuts. I want to make America
rich again and to make America great again. I
have Ivanka and Eric. Run the company, kids.
Have a good time. I’m gonna do it for America!”
Mr Trump’s three children, Donald Jr, Eric and
Ivanka, are already executive vice presidents of
the Trump Organisation. “We’re not going to
discuss those things,” Donald Jr said in
September, referring to the company’s business
dealings. “Trust me. As you know, it’s a very
fulltime job. He doesn’t need to worry about the
business.”
But Robert Weissman, president of the liberal
advocacy group Public Citizen, said the idea that
there would be independence was “laughable”.
“There’s zero reason to expect they wouldn’t talk
about those issues, given everything we know
about how they relate and how those businesses
are run,” he told NPR.
