Silent Cal famously proclaimed that the business of America is business. This was mildly ironic since he became president when Warren G. Harding died in office after the business of his administration had become corruption, including the lease of government oil lands at favorable rates. The quid pro quo was bribes in the form of satchels of cash amounting to $385,000 to Interior Secretary Albert Fall. He became the first cabinet secretary to wind up in the slammer. But not the last.
The business of Trump has always been Trump, and it is worth asking whether he will be able to resist cashing in as president. As the Geico ad says — it’s what he does. Even the impeccably right-wing, capitalist editorial page of the “Wall Street Journal” warns that Trump is a walking conflict of interests.
It has joined a chorus suggesting that Trump must sell all his assets and put the proceeds into a genuinely blind trust to allay fears that he will use his office for the purpose of self-dealing. It is obviously not far fetched to suppose he would turn public service into private self-aggrandizement.
And the grifter doesn’t fall very far from the tree. After Ivanka appeared alongside her father on an interview wearing jewelry from her company’s catalog, it was promoted for sale at $10,000 “as seen on “60 Minutes.” He must have been proud to see her display such resourcefulness in capitalizing on the public trust. The American people may not profit from a Trump presidency, but Ivanka is already turning a buck.
During the course of the campaign, Trump commingled politicking and promoting his properties including a trip to Scotland to tout a golf course and a press conference at his new Washington hotel which he used to plug it. Since the property is leased from the federal government, there have already been calls for him to divest it.
He has begun to use the power of the president-elect to put the arm on people, including Argentina to spend up a project of his there. And Ivanka abd Jared Kushner sat in on a Trump meeting with the Shinzo Abe, he head of Japan, in which topics were discussed that may have required a security clearnce which they do not possess. Indian businessmen allied with Trump businesses let it be known that they were staying at Trump’s Washington hotel so as to curry favor with him.
Trump was supposed to hold a press conference to address his solution to the problem on December 15th, but he postponed it claiming he is too busy to deal with it and that his advisors haven’t yet worked out the best way to proceed. We have heard this sort of thing before with regard to his taxes. They will be revealed after an audit that never ends. And his divestiture plans will be revealed in December, no, make that January or whenever.
We already know that he sees no real need to behave as all previous presidents have in regard to his business conflicts. He’s tweeted about the fact that there’s no law compelling him to divest. And the notion of a blind trust in which his children run his empire while Daddy’s busy making the country great again is laughable. Will Eric, Don Jr. and Ivanka quit talking to the old man for the next four years? If not, it will be an eyes wide open trust in which he knows every move they make, and they will know his plans in advance and can behave accordingly.
On the evidence of his behavior so far, Trump apparently has no plans to segregate the family from government in any meaningful sense. A meeting this week with tech tycoons had 25 seats — thirteen for executives from Alphabet, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and the like, eight for Trump, Pence and six other administration people and four more seats for — you guessed it — Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who will apparently be given a high post in the White House. But title ot no title, he is among Trump’s closest advisors already.
If the opportunities for corruption and conflicts of interest weren’t enough to force Trump to actually separate himself from his business, the real foreign policy risks ought to give him pause. His properties around the world will become instant targets for enemies of America. Already he has been exposed to possible blackmail.
In a courtesy call from Turkish President Erdogan, Trump blathered on about how much he loved Turkey, what a great country it was, and what lovely people — including his business partners there, the Dogan Group. Erdogan has sought the extradition of Fethullah Gülen, an anti-Erdogan cleric living in Pennsylvania, who he blames for a part in the attempted coup against his regime.
The Obama administration has declined to extradite Gulen. Incautious Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s NSC chief-designate, has opined that Gulen should go. Erdogan apparently decided Trump could be pressured to comply, and after hearing him praise the Dogan Group saw he had leverage. He promptly arrested several Dogan employees and clapped hem in jail, implying he’d swap them for the cleric.
It is a lot darker and more nefarious world than Trump is used to, and by
refusing to divest himself of his empire he puts it, his far-flung employees and partners, and his family members at risk. It is not hard to imagine a case in which he is tempted to use United States military or security personnel to rescue men and women he has made hostages to fortune, his fortune. Tat isn’t what they, or we, signed up for.
If he refuses to separate himself from his busines interests, he allows enemies foreign and domestic to imagine they can get leverage on, twist the arm of, curry favor with or bribe the President of the United States. Bad for him, bad for us, and bad for the country.