Trump's
conflicts of interest: a visual guide
By Nadja Popovich
and Jan Diehm
“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!” Donald Trump tweeted
on Wednesday. The early morning announcement, which provided no
further details but promised a press conference on 15 December,
followed weeks of bad press over conflicts of interest posed by the
Trump Organization’s international real estate dealings.
“While I am not
mandated to do this under the law,” Trump wrote, “I feel it is
visually important, as president, to in no way have a conflict of
interest with my various businesses.”
So far, the visuals
haven’t been good for the president-elect. Photos showing his
daughter Ivanka Trump – who is slated to take over the family
business – sitting in on meetings with foreign leaders raised new
concerns over the failure to separate the Trump family brand from the
presidency. Days later, a series of Facebook photos showed a meeting
between the president-elect and Indian real estate partners, adding
fuel to the fire.
Closer to home, the
business interests of the Trump Organization will cross paths with
the US government on multiple fronts, providing ample opportunity for
further conflicts.
General Services
Administration v Trump International Hotel, DC
One of
President-elect Trump’s most immediate conflicts of interest stands
less than a mile from the White House: the brand-new Trump
International Hotel Washington DC.
The hotel, which was
repeatedly plugged by Trump on the campaign trail, is located in the
Old Post Office Pavilion, a federal building leased by the Trump
Organization in 2013 – well ahead of any campaign announcements.
But the terms of that deal specifically forbid any “elected
official of the Government of the United States” from holding “any
share of part of this Lease” or benefiting from it in any way – a
potential problem for the president-elect.
Trump will also
appoint the head of the General Services Administration, the agency
tasked with overseeing the Old Post Office Pavilion lease. That puts
the GSA in the awkward position of renegotiating terms of the lease
with the president or his family if Trump hands his business over to
his children on 15 December, as he has suggested in the past.
Trump's children –
Ivanka, Donald Jr and Eric – have also been named to the
presidential transition team, which advises on cabinet and other
government agency appointments.
Experts argue that
the GSA should break its lease with the Trump organization before
inauguration day if the president-elect does not resolve these
conflicts in a more robust manner. But the agency itself has been
more cautious, saying it will coordinate with the Trump transition
team to resolve “any issues”.
Other government
agencies also play a role in the hotel’s conflict-of-interest saga,
such as the National Park Service, which recently took steps to help
approve a tax subsidy worth up to $32m for the Trump Organization.
National Labor
Relations Board v Trump International Hotel Las Vegas
Earlier this
November, the National Labor Relations Board – an independent
federal agency tasked with investigating unfair labor practices –
ruled against the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas for refusing to
bargain with the union representing much of its staff. Now,
President-elect Trump will be tasked with appointing new members to
the five-person oversight board.
Immediately, that
will mean filling two vacant seats that have been empty for most of
the Obama years due to deep partisan divides over the role of the
NLRB. (Generally, Republicans haven’t looked kindly on an agency
that would shore up union rights.)
In November of next
year, Trump will also replace the NLRB’s general counsel – the
person responsible for seeking enforcement of NLRB orders in federal
courts. That position is currently held by Richard Griffin Jr, an
Obama appointee and former union attorney. Over the long term, the
three current board members’ five-year terms will end during
Trump’s presidency.
The group that runs
the Trump hotel in Las Vegas, Trump Ruffin, has appealed the NLRB's
decision in federal court and will likely face off against Griffin or
the next Trump appointee.
Department of
Justice v Deutsche Bank
The Department of
Justice may also come up against the business interests of the Trump
Organization.
In September, the
DoJ asked German lender Deutsche Bank to pay $14bn over its role in
the 2008 financial crisis. (The bank is accused of selling bad
mortgage-backed securities, bonds backed by risky mortgages that were
central to the 2008 financial crash.)
Deutsche, which was
reportedly prepared to pay $2-3bn in settlement, balked at the DoJ’s
higher fine and has been negotiating it down ever since. Those
negotiations may stretch into the new administration.
Deutsche Bank also
happens to be Trump’s lender of choice, as reported by the Wall
Street Journal. The German banking giant has “led or participated
in loans of at least $2.5 billion to companies affiliated with Mr.
Trump”, and the bank holds another $1bn in “loan commitments”
to Trump affiliates, according to the Journal.
That relationship
could be tricky to navigate for the Trump administration. As
president, Trump will oversee the justice department and appoint the
Attorney General, who will in turn oversee the DoJ’s Deutsche deal
if it is not resolved before 20 January 2017.
What the
President-elect could do
Trump has suggested
he would leave his business “in total” by turning over operations
to his children, who already hold executive roles in the company. But
experts argue that such an arrangement would not solve the conflicts
of interest at home or abroad.
Simply put: the
interests of President-elect Trump are linked to those of his family,
children included.
To guarantee a
separation of personal interests from public policy, Trump would need
to set up a “genuine blind trust” – one managed by an
independent party – or liquidate his business assets, according to
more than a dozen government ethics experts and watchdog
organizations who wrote a letter to the future . As difficult as it
would be to sell all of Trump’s properties, liquidation would more
realistically divorce Trump from his conflicts.
If family members
stay involved with the Trump Organization, the Trump administration
would need to enforce “a clear firewall … so that these family
members have no involvement with policy decisions at the White
House”, the letter argued.
But such an
arrangement is unlikely because Trump’s three oldest children –
and heirs to the family business – have been named to the executive
committee of the new administration’s transition team. That role
gives them advisory power over their father’s picks to lead the
very organizations their business interests with the Trump
Organization will come up against.
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