A top adviser to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the presidential candidate would avoid financial conflicts of interest if elected president.
Bloomberg would place his company in a blind trust, and a trustee would then sell the organization, according to Bloomberg’s senior campaign adviser Tim O’Brien. O’Brien told the Associated Press that all proceeds from the company’s sale would go toward Bloomberg Philanthropies, which funds campaigns to counter climate change and public health issues.
“We want to be 180 degrees apart from Donald Trump around financial conflicts of interest,” O’Brien told the Associated Press. “We think it’s one of the biggest stains on the presidency, and Trump’s record is his refusal to disengage himself in his own financial interests. And we want to be very transparent and clean and clear with voters about where Mike is on these things.”
O’Brien did not provide a timeline as to when the sale would occur nor what would happen to Bloomberg Philanthropies.
By contrast, Trump said he would not sell his businesses during an interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace after winning the presidency in 2016. However, Trump noted he would transfer managerial roles to his grown children and distance himself from the company’s decision-making process.
“My executives will run it with my children. It’s a big company. It’s a great company. But I’m going to have nothing to do with management,” Trump said. “You know, when you sell real estate, that’s not like going out and selling a stock. That takes a long time.”
