Iowa Rep. Steve King thinks it’s fine if President-elect Trump gets security clearances for his children and brings them into high-level positions, even though Congress has moved to prevent family members from getting these sorts of clearances.
Speaking on CNN Wednesday, King pointed to President Kennedy appointing his younger brother Robert as attorney general as precedent for why having family members in the Cabinet of a new president is OK.
“If Donald Trump, the president-elect, wants to bring his family members into high-level positions where they would need a security clearance, I do not have a philosophical or legal or logical position why that shouldn’t happen,” King said.
In the wake of Kennedy appointing his younger brother as attorney general, Congress passed a law banning officials in the executive branch, as well as Congress and the judiciary, from giving family members appointed positions. If an official made such an appointment anyway, the Treasury could not pay those family members.
When confronted with this law, and the fact that Trump has said his children are going to run the Trump Organization in a blind trust while he’s in office, King said it’s more important that Trump won’t take a salary as president.
“It is a realistic concern but listening to the tone of Donald Trump when he told America he didn’t know what the salary was for president of the United States and he said, I wouldn’t take the salary unless the law required me to take $1 a year,” King said, “his interests are going to be completely for the United States of America.”
Trump has denied reports that his children and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are seeking security clearances. But, even if they did seek security clearances, King said that’s not unethical.
“I don’t think that’s what’s unethical,” King said. “I think what’s really ethical is him suspending his business endeavors to help our country.”
