The U.S. Office of Government Ethics cheered President-elect Trump’s upcoming announcement of how he will separate himself from his business empire in a string of tweets Wednesday.
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The office, which regularly advises presidents but keeps that advice confidential, praised Trump repeatedly for divesting from his company. Trump announced Wednesday he would hold a press conference releasing details of how he will separate himself “in total” from the Trump Organization. It’s not clear if divestment is part of that plan.
“We can’t repeat enough how good this total divestiture will be,” the office tweeted.
It then got far more enthusiastic. All of the tweets started with Trump’s Twitter username.
“Brilliant! Divestiture is good for you, very good for America!”
“OGE applauds the ‘total’ divestiture decision. Bravo!”
The account then revealed its attorneys had spoke with Trump’s lawyers and urged divestment in order to get rid of any potential conflicts of interest.
Trump has been under fire from critics for ways his business empire could conflict with his presidential duties, as well as including his children in diplomatic meetings and transition team discussions when he has said they will take over his company in a blind trust when he’s in office.
The account tweeted at Trump a total of nine times, using six exclamation marks to convey its excitement, about his “divestment,” which he has not confirmed he would do.
It ended its praise by saying, “we told your counsel we’d sing your praises if you divested, we meant it.”
The Washington Post reported the office originally tweeted the praise for Trump about noon on Wednesday before deleting the tweets. They were then reposted about an hour later.
Officials at the agency did not immediately return requests for comment by the Washington Examiner to explain why it decided to tweet at Trump or why it praised him for divesting when it’s not clear if he will do that.
In a statement sent to a National Public Radio reporter, spokesman Seth Jaffe chalked the tweets up to excitement.
“Like everyone else, we were excited this morning to read the President-elect’s Twitter feed indicating that he wants to be free of conflicts of interest,” Jaffe said in the statement. “OGE applauds that goal, which is consistent with an opinion OGE issued in 1983. Divesture resolves conflicts of interest in a way that transferring control does not. We don’t know the details of their plan, but we are willing and eager to help them with it.”
