This is a heck of a thing. The official Twitter account of the Office of Government Ethics, which does what the name implies, today started tweeting their thoughts on Trump’s “divestment” to the man directly:
This continues for a while, to the point where it perhaps begins to get a little … sarcastic?
Hmmmmmm. That last one is a bit of a tell, maybe?
At first glance the tweetstorm from the normally formal and stuffy OGE offices seemed like a fed-up employee deciding to go out with a bang, but the over-lavish praise coupled with the closing statement that the office “told your counsel” they’d “sing your praises” could also be interpreted as exactly that—keeping a promise to Trump that they’d pat his head and call him a good boy in public if he followed even a part of what every other modern president has had to do as a matter of ethical obviousness.
Mind you, he hasn’t actually “divested” yet and it’s still not even close to resolving the larger conflict of interest issues—temporarily giving his businesses to his own children would be not so much a “divestment” as the second cousin of a tax dodge—but is it possible the government’s lawyers have resolved to treat him in public like the irritable but moldable child he is?
Here’s the spokesman for the office, asked about the tweetstorm:
Like everyone else, we were excited this morning to read the President-elect’s twitter feed indicating he wants to be free of conflicts of interest. OGE applauds that goal, which is consistent with an opinion OGE issued in 1983. Divestiture resolves conflicts of interest in a way that transferring control does not. We don’t know the details of their plan, but we are willing and eager to help them with it.
Whether you read sarcasm into that statement, as with all the others, is entirely up to you.
