There’s no need for President-elect Trump to set up a blind trust to run his business while he is in the Oval Office, one of the top men on his presidential transition team said Sunday.
Rudy Giuliani, the vice chair of the presidential transition team, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that laws requiring an independent entity to run a business to ensure political decisions are not made to further one’s personal wealth do not apply to the president. The best solution, he said, is for Trump’s three oldest children to continue running the business while some legal document requires that the president himself not be involved.
“It’s kind of unrealistic to say you’re going to take the business away from the three people who are running it,” the former New York City mayor said. “You’d be putting them out of work.”
Trump’s children have played a key role in his campaign, both acting as advisers and speaking in support of him on the trail. Ivanka, Eric and Donald Junior, as well as his son-in-law Jared Kushner, have also all been named to the transition team, but Giuliani said they will not play a role in Trump’s administration once he’s in office.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper pushed Giuliani on the transparency of leaving the business in the hands of Trump’s children, drawing comparisons to the conflict of interest between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state.
“If a blind trust is not set up, this is going to be an issue for Donald Trump for the duration of his presidency,” Tapper said. “Everything is going to be under the lens of what is the effect of this on his wealth.”
Giuliani said that even temporarily putting the business under the control of an independent party could still lead to questions, since Trump would ultimately be benefiting from the company’s success. But he emphasized that Trump is already very rich and did not run for office to increase his wealth.
“There’s no perfect way to do this. You have to have some confidence in the integrity of the president,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any real fear or suspicion that he’s wanting to enrich himself by being president.”
