President-elect Trump released long-awaited details on Wednesday about how he will separate himself from his businesses and investments while serving in the Oval Office.
At the president-elect’s first press conference since his election victory, Sheri Dillon, a tax controversy attorney at Morgan Lewis, said the incoming commander in chief will “completely isolate” himself from management of the Trump Organization and relinquish control of his multibillion-dollar business to his two grown sons and Allen Weisselberg, the company’s current executive vice president.
Trump had hinted at such an arrangement in a pair of tweets last month, writing that “even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my businesses before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the presidency.”
“I could actually run my business and do government at the same time, [but] I don’t like how that looks,” Trump said Wednesday, noting that he turned down a $2 billion deal with a developer in Dubai just this week.
Dillon said Trump will place his personal holdings in a trust prior to Inauguration Day and appoint an ethics adviser who will ensure he remains in compliance with laws against conflicts of interest. She added that Trump has already terminated pending business deals with foreign entities and will donate all profits from foreign government payments to his luxury hotels to the U.S. Treasury going forward.
“[Trump] will only know of a new deal if he reads of it in the paper or sees it on TV,” she said.
Despite claims by some legal experts that Trump cannot fully avoid conflicts of interest unless he divests from his real estate empire completely, Dillon said the president-elect has no intention of selling the Trump Organization or turning it into a public company.
“President-elect Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built,” she said, adding that turning it into a publicly traded entity “is not realistic and it would be inappropriate.”
Dillon did not address whether Trump will remove himself from his 60-year lease with the General Services Administration for his new hotel in downtown Washington, which some have said he is now in violation of. A source familiar with the lease told the Washington Examiner that the clause in question may not apply to Trump because he entered into the lease before becoming an elected official.
Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka, whose husband Jared Kushner recently accepted a senior role in the White House, also plans to separate herself from the Trump Organization, Dillon said. Though Ivanka is not expected to take a position in her father’s administration, she will likely be a major player on policy issues like child care and climate change.
Trump had initially planned to hold a press conference on his business conflicts last month, but ultimately postponed the event to focus on filling out his Cabinet and to allow his attorneys to spend additional time navigating the complexities of the situation.
“He instructed us to take all steps realistically possible to make it clear that he is not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit,” Dillon said of Trump.
The president-elect will be sworn into office nine days from now on Jan. 20.
