Trump's conflicts of interest are without precedent in American presidential history, says the Washington Post. Yeah, no shit.
No laws prohibit Trump from involving himself in his private company, the Trump Organization, while serving in the highest public office.
Not only has Trump suggested that he will, instead of divesting himself from his corporate interests, be simply handing them to his family to oversee, but he refuses to even let American voters know what those interests are. Donald Trump will be governing the business of the nation in a way that may or may not be intended to enrich himself—and Americans won't know. He may very well be proposing tax policies targeted almost exclusively toward carving out exceptions for his own businesses—and considers that his right.
As for the notion of handing his business dealings to his family: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were reportedly part of the Trump team's transition meetings today. So the people running his companies "independently" are, literally, sitting alongside the other administration decision makers.
It’s “unthinkable in recent history,” Potter added, that “there’s the possibility of a president being able to affect his own personal financial interests, conceivably to the detriment of the general public.”
All right, so what happens now? There's no modern precedent for this. Will an outraged press demand Trump divulge his true financial interests? And what if he does not? Will Republicans who are forever bristling over supposed corruption and self-dealing in government gag at an administration run in large part for the personal benefit of its head? Which Republicans, exactly?
It may be unthinkable, but now it needs to be thought. Trump's business dealings are now indistinguishable from the Trump presidency, and Trump's assurances that all will be on the up-and-up are fundamentally dishonest.
So what now?