The New York Post says Donald Trump’s business empire presents the most serious challenge as he heads into the White House early next year.
“Of all the issues facing the president-elect and his brain trust, the question of how to avoid conflicts of interest with his global business may be the thorniest,” its editorial board said in an editorial published Monday.
{mosads}“And while some federal ethics laws don’t apply to the president, some prohibitions are in the Constitution itself,” it added. “More important: Even the appearance of monetizing the presidency as another Trump brand would be outrageous.
“Nor is it only the White House that will need to take care: Trump Organization execs can’t be seen milking the presidency in any way, either.”
The Post’s editorial said the future Trump administration would also create new concerns for the Republican’s brand.
“Every project with his name on it must now consider itself a prime a target not only for protesters and investigative reporters (The Washington Post and The New York Times are surely assembling their teams) but also for terrorists.”
The Post added several of the solutions proposed for balancing Trump’s private enterprise with his public service do not solve the problem.
“Last week, our colleagues at The Wall Street Journal suggested the best way to deal with it all is simply to sell the company,” it said. “That could be tough on the Trump family: a fire sale could cost them billions.
“Maybe the president-elect was on the right track when he promised to put his interests in a ‘blind trust’ – but one run by his children won’t pass the sniff test,” it added.
“After all, if the election had gone the other way, we’d right now be furiously denouncing the idea of letting Chelsea [Clinton] run the Clinton Foundation.”
Trump is grappling with how to best separate his presidency from his vast corporate holdings.
Critics say the billionaire may use the presidency to boost his profits, and that it may unfairly influence his decisions.