How do you know Donald Trump’s business has a conflict of interest? Because he has a business. Well before you get to Trump convincing foreign diplomats that they’ll have more luck at the White House if they stay at Trump’s hotel, or turning a call with the Argentinian president into an appeal for an expedited building permit, there’s a very basic factor that makes every move of the Trump Organization a problem for the Trump administration.
Airplanes belonging to Donald Trump’s businesses will be inspected over the next four years by employees of the Federal Aviation Administration that he will lead.
Disputes over Trump’s trademark registrations could be reviewed by judges appointed by his hand-picked commerce secretary. His Department of Housing and Urban Development could reverse its past opposition to a potentially lucrative sale of a large subsidized housing complex in New York partly owned by the president-elect. And Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency will have the power to roll back clean-water rules he and other golf course owners have said are harmful to their industry.
Trump doesn’t have to be behind the desk buying real estate in Dubai to create a conflict of interest. Every move that his administration makes will have an impact on his business, and he’s fully aware of the scale of that impact.
Trump and his lawyers did not address how his administration will approach the range of regulatory actions and other decisions that could directly touch the business …
At a minimum, according to ethics experts, government officials tasked with making decisions affecting Trump businesses could feel pressure to keep the boss happy. At worse, experts say, Trump or his allies could abuse their power to sway decision-makers
And of course, the Trump team would also want the names of those ethics experts.
American ethics has always been heavily clouded with a mixture of nice guys finish last, winning is the only thing, and laughing at anyone who expects anything to be “fair.” Trump is simply the ultimate expression of that idea—that ethic.
“We are going into an inauguration in a completely unprecedented situation,” said Trevor Potter, who advised several GOP presidential campaigns and served as chair of the Federal Election Commission. “We face now . . . a president with a huge number of active business interests who has not taken steps to prevent government decisions concerning those interests from landing on his desk. This is a big step backwards.”
It’s only backward if you believe that taking advantage of every possible advantage is an issue, rather than a life strategy. Government employees have always been instructed to rule fairly, and Republicans have certainly complained when there was any hint of a reason to believe they were not.
But employees have typically not been asked to apply the rules to businesses owned by their ultimate boss, the president himself — and no law prohibits the president from profiting from his elected position.
As with so many institutions of American government, the presidency is mostly bounded by traditions and expectations—and neither of those will even slow Trump.