Donald Trump says he’ll step away from his businesses as president, but he’s not doing so as president-elect.
On New Year’s Eve, he went out of his way, at a public event, to praise a business partner of his — Hussain Sajwani — who operates the Trump hotels in Dubai, and thus pays Trump for the use of his name.
CNN posted the video.
When the president or the president-elect goes out of his way to praise a company or a businessman, it helps that company or businessman. When that praise also may enrich the president or the president-elect, he is using his power for self-enrichment.
Also, this episode shows another reason to worry about Trump’s business ties complicating his presidency, even if you were to assume good intentions on his part: He seems to let his business dealings with people very strongly affect his opinion of those people. This could steer his foreign and domestic policy towards those who given him money, even if he wasn’t thinking about enriching himself.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
