During an interview Tuesday morning on the Today show, President-elect Donald Trump claimed he sold off all his stocks in June to avoid conflicts of interest.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be owning stocks when I’m making deals for this country that maybe will affect one company positively and one company negatively,” Trump said. “I just felt it was a conflict.”
Here’s a transcript of Trump’s full exchange with Today host Matt Lauer:
Hm. Trump: "I was never a big stockholder but I bought a lot of different stocks." pic.twitter.com/hk8YnRBP3g
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) December 7, 2016
While there’s no evidence Trump actually sold all his stocks, at least he acknowledges that continued ownership of them would present a problem. But if Trump really wants to avoid conflicts of interest when he’s president, then there’s another step he must take — completely divesting from the Trump Organization.
As the New York Times detailed last month, “Trump has business interests in at least 20 countries, in addition to extensive hotel and real estate holdings in the United States.” A Manhattan office building Trump partly owns was reportedly financed in part by the Bank of China, and the Trump International Hotel in D.C. is already becoming a hot spot for events hosted by foreign governments.
These conflicts represent a far more serious problem than Trump’s stock holdings. Trump owned very small pieces of large public companies. It was hard for any action, either by the corporation or Trump, to significantly impact Trump’s bottom line.
Trump’s businesses, however, provide a direct mechanism for foreign governments and others who seek to influence Trump to make direct payments to him.
Last month, Richard Painter, former chief ethics counsel to President George W. Bush, told ThinkProgress that unless Trump completely divests from the Trump Organization, he’ll violate a clause in the Constitution prohibiting federal office holders from accepting “ any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.”
On November 30, Trump tweeted that he’ll be holding a news conference on December 15 in New York City “to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country.” While the specifics remain unclear, Trump has indicated that three of his adult children — Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric — will take over management of his business.
Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric also serve in official capacities on Trump’s transition team, effectively creating a merger of his transition and business interests. Trump appears committed to retaining his ownership of the Trump Organization and merely turn over day-to-day management to his children.
Trump has already shown a willingness to leverage his new position to benefit his companies. He admitted, for example, to imploring a group of British politicians to kill a wind power project. Trump is concerned that the windmills will ruin the views from one of his golf courses.