Donald Trump Is Changing His Thoughts On His Business
One big question that has yet bt be answered has been what will happen to the Trump business empire will change when Donald Trump becomes president on January 20th. The President-elect announced this morning via Twitter that he will leave his “great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country” in the White House.
The Manhattan billionaire said he will hold a formal press conference to discuss it further on Dec. 15. He has in the past said that he does not have to leave his company, by law, but he is doing this voluntarily.
The billionaire businessman has received sustained criticism for holding onto his business interests even as he worked on becoming President. Doing so even threatened to make his administration in breach of the constitution from its first day, lawyers have suggested.
But the President-elect said that he wasn’t being forced to give up his business empire, and was instead doing it because it is “visually important.”
The announcement comes after several warnings from officials about potential conflicts of interests.
The former ethics lawyers for president Barack Obama and George W Bush last week asked the electoral college to not appoint the business mogul as the next president due to his potential conflicts of interest. Richard Painter, former chief ethics counsel for Mr Bush, and Norman Eisen, former chief ethics counsel for Mr Obama, said that the president-elect must sell out from his real estate and business holdings before 19 December, when the electoral college officially appoints the next president.
Trump business holdings are worth estimated at $3.7 billion by Forbes, and his primary assets include Trump Tower in Manhattan and the Mar-A-Lago Resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Mr. Trump didn’t say how he would give up the businesses, though it is likely that he will hand them over to his children. The key will be access, will his children be able to sit in on meetings, will Trump speak to other countries about projects that will help the business after he leaves office.
Coming up on December 15th we will start to find out 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 …
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016
great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! While I am not mandated to ….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016
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..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016
