Oh, why are we not surprised?
The Trump camp has just announced that the man headed for the White House will postpone his important scheduled press conference. This is the press conference that was supposed to take place on December 15th. You know, the press conference about his business interests.
#Trump postpones press conference where he was supposed to deal with his conflicts of interest. Bets on how many times he'll push this off. https://t.co/Kc8w6cBd7S
— EJ Dionne (@EJDionne) December 12, 2016
Trump had promised us that he would come forward to explain how he plans to distance himself from his business empire, so that there is no conflict of interest.
Why are we not even a tiny bit surprised that he is pushing it off?
Mr. Trump has not given one single press conference since July. He has not spoken to journalists who want to ask him questions about his businesses, his connections to Russia, his bizarre and uniquely unqualified Cabinet picks.
But when pushed by the media to explain how he will manage to own and run a luxury hotel within spitting distance of the White House, among other huge conflicts, the President-elect promised to come forward on Dec. 15th.
But the transition team has announced today that Mr. Trump is just oh-so-busy that he hasn’t had time to finalize this whole business thing. He’ll explain it all to us in January.
You know, AFTER the electoral college has cast its votes.
Thursday's event was to be his first press conference since being elected president. https://t.co/GNRpLYM6i6
— Money Mindset (@Money_and_Chaos) December 12, 2016
Donald Trump currently has approximately $3.6 billion of assets and $630 million of debt held in more than 500 companies. He’s been dealing with heads of countries around the world, and it’s clear that they will want to curry favor with him by throwing business his way.
Now we hear that the President-elect hasn’t had the time to worry about this whole complex mess. He can’t multi-task well enough to choose a cabinet while asking his lawyers to handle his business conflicts.
One has to assume that Trump knows he could be impeached for violating the “emoluments clause” of the U. S. Constitution. One has to assume that Donald Trump understands the importance of divesting himself from his business interests before moving into the White House.
One also has to assume, given the news about the Russian interference in our election, that Donald Trump realizes that he is on rather thin ice with the country.
So why is he postponing his press conference on his businesses?
I have a theory, and it involves the fact the the guy never intended to spend four years having to actually work full time. I think he’s hoping he’ll be stopped before he takes office.
What else can we think?
Featured image by Matt Wade via Flickr. Available through CC BY-SA 2.0
