Ever since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States in November, the elephant in the room has been how he is going to deal with the many conflicts of interest created by his many business interests.
So far, he has canceled a press conference promising to detail how he’d do that, and promising to shut down the controversial Trump Foundation.
It’s nowhere near enough, and he’s not the only person to think so. Brookings Institution fellow Norm Eisen says:
“There’s a uniform consensus among everyone who does government ethics for a living … those who are still in government and those who have left government, that Donald Trump must divest. He’s got to sell his holdings, through using a blind trust or the equivalent of it, as every president has done for 40 years.”
And even though the President-elect keeps insisting that the potential conflicts will not be a big problem; Eisen thinks Trump knows otherwise. He says that Trump’s scramble to settle the many legal issues his businesses face (like the much-publicized Trump University lawsuit) show that he knows there is lots of work to do.
But he emphasizes that what Trump has done so far is still far below the ethical standard. Eisen states:
“That being said, [Trump’s actions] are not enough. They are baby steps, when what we need is a giant leap.”
He’s also wary of Trump’s decision to shut down the Trump Foundation so quickly.
“We don’t want any information to disappear into the ether when the charity closes. That’s a particular problem for Donald Trump because he has a propensity for secrecy…”
And that press conference? We’re still waiting on that. And the inauguration is only a few weeks away.
Welcome to Trump America everyone!
Watch Trevor Noah sum up the complete and incredibly complicated mess here:
Featured image via screenshot/YouTube.
