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"This seems like a massive conflict of interest." It is. It's huge. The problem is ... his portfolio is not 'stocks and bonds' that he can easily liquidate, o

"This seems like a massive conflict of interest." It is. It's huge. The problem is ... his portfolio is not 'stocks and bonds' that he can easily liquidate, or put in a blind trust. He has tons of huge properties - to put them up on the chopping block would mean a huge fire sale - and totally unfair. I also saw a lawyer indicate that the buyers of such properties - because they'd be getting a bargain - could be perceived as getting massive 'favour' from the sitting president - and that in and of itself would be a major conflict of interest. So in his defence - it's complicated. That said - there should be a way of putting up a much bigger firewall between him and Trump Co. As it stands, it's already bad ... foreign delegations - without pressuring - may feel incented to use 'Trump Hotels' etc. etc.. I think it's going to be a drag on him, because there'll be tons of people invariably using Trump-owned facilities - and every time it happens - it will be in the press, and it will look bad irrespective of if there was any wrongdoing. It's a mess, I don't see any clean way out of it.

thomnottom 10y ago
It almost sounds like this is something that should have been dealt with as soon as he won the nomination instead of waiting until after the election.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  Honestly, it's the kind of thing that should have been addressed shortly after he decided he might seek the office.
FireBeyond 10y ago
It is a challenging and complicated issue, I will give Trump that much. That being said, he has appeared to be entirely uninterested in doing much to resolve it. "Oh, my family will look after it. Hey, family, come visit dignitaries with me." "Oh, they'll run it from New York. I'll spend a few nights a week in New York at my office there. We won't talk about anything business related, promise."

thomnottom 10y ago

It almost sounds like this is something that should have been dealt with as soon as he won the nomination instead of waiting until after the election.

dragonwriter 10y ago
Honestly, it's the kind of thing that should have been addressed shortly after he decided he might seek the office.

FireBeyond 10y ago

It is a challenging and complicated issue, I will give Trump that much. That being said, he has appeared to be entirely uninterested in doing much to resolve it. "Oh, my family will look after it. Hey, family, come visit dignitaries with me." "Oh, they'll run it from New York. I'll spend a few nights a week in New York at my office there. We won't talk about anything business related, promise."