Donald Trump and his attorney Wednesday stated that Trump would maintain ownership of his “golf clubs, resorts, hotels” and other hard assets here and abroad.
Trump and his attorney rolled out a business plan that included many laudable elements: terminating pending business deals, barring new foreign deals from his company, creating an ethics officer to vet new domestic deals and reducing the information he receives.
But Trump refused to take the step he really needs to take to free himself from conflicts of interest: selling his resorts, hotels and golf courses.
Regarding his domestic properties, Trump has the power, through federal lands policy, through infrastructure funding, through federal subsidy programs, and countless other federal policies to enrich himself, massively. This creates temptations for him, appearances of impropriety and possible pressure on subordinates
Regarding his foreign properties, Trump’s properties provide conflicts of interest and occasions for corruption. Foreign leaders could take actions to enrich Trump through his hotels, or to boost the value of his land, perhaps buying Trump’s affection. Trump’s pledge to donate all profits from these hotels to the U.S. Treasury leaves huge problems remaining:
First, as Trump said at the end of the press conference, he plans to return to his company when he leaves the White House. So if a foreign leader, say, adds infrastructure to boost the value of a hotel, or conversely closes down Trump’s golf course, Trump profits or loses upon leaving the administration.
Also, forgoing profits on foreign businesses for the next four or eight years doesn’t mean forgoing riches. A foreign hotel could simply fold more revenue into expansion or debt retirement, and voila — no profits! Yet Trump’s wealth and the value of the company would still grow from his foreign revenues.
Trump refused to sell his foreign hotels, as our editorial advocated, because he would take a large loss. This shows that there are some things he values more than Making America Great Again.
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.
