Trump says he will back away from
business to focus on White House
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[December 01, 2016]
By Steve Holland and Melissa Fares
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect
Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to step back from running his global
business empire to avoid conflicts of interest but gave few immediate
details as concern over his dual role mounts ahead of his Jan. 20
inauguration.
Trump, a real estate magnate who owns hotels and golf resorts from
Panama to Scotland, said he would spell out at a Dec. 15 news conference
how he will separate himself "in total" from his worldwide business
holdings, which include a winery, modeling agency and a range of other
businesses.
After Trump won the Nov. 8 election, his company, the Trump
Organization, had said it was looking at new business structures with
the goal of transferring control to Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and
Eric Trump - three of his adult children who are involved with the
company.
Trump gave few details in a series of early morning tweets but said that
"legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of
business operations" and that his children would attend the news
conference. He did not say what the planned change might mean for
ownership of his businesses.
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Although Trump's fellow Republicans generally take a more laissez faire
stance toward business than Democrats, the president-elect will travel
to Indiana on Thursday to formally announce a deal he reached with
United Technologies Corp to keep close to 1,000 jobs at its Carrier Corp
air conditioner plant in Indianapolis rather than have them moved to
Mexico.
Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, railed
against Carrier on the campaign trail, using the company's outsourcing
move as an example of how trade agreements hurt American workers.
'HE NEEDS TO SELL THE BUSINESSES'
Critics have raised questions about the role of Trump's children, who
are on the executive committee of his White House transition team. His
daughter Ivanka joined a telephone call her father had with Argentine
President Mauricio Macri earlier this month and attended a meeting with
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, creating concerns about possible
conflicts of interest.
A brand name around the globe, Trump previously argued he had no need to
separate himself from the Trump Organization, which includes a hotel
down the street from the White House, a Manhattan tower where he lives
and is running his transition to office, and a New Jersey golf course
where he interviewed Cabinet candidates earlier this month.
Trump said on Wednesday he was not required by law to alter his
relationship with his business, but added: "I feel it is visually
important, as president, to in no way have a conflict of interest with
my various businesses."
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As the Republican heads toward taking over the White House from
Democratic President Barack Obama, scrutiny of potential conflicts has
grown. Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill called for hearings on the
issue.
Rules on conflict of interest for executive branch employees do not
apply to the president, but Trump will be bound by bribery laws,
disclosure rules and the U.S. Constitution, which bars elected officials
from taking gifts from foreign governments.
The nonpartisan Office of Government Ethics, a government office that
oversees ethics programs for the executive branch, issued a statement
saying it applauded Trump's aims and appearing to suggest that he
completely shed his holdings.
"Divestiture resolves conflicts of interest in a way that transferring
control does not," it said.
Richard Painter, who served as the chief ethics lawyer to former
Republican President George W. Bush, concurred.
"He needs to sell the businesses not just have someone else manage them
for him," Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law
School, said in an emailed comment.
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![](../images/120116pics/news_p27.jpg)
President-elect Donald Trump arrives at the the main clubhouse at
Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S., November
19, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar
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WALL STREET PICKS
Trump, a former reality TV star, has spent much of the past few
weeks setting up his Cabinet and interviewing candidates for top
jobs in his administration.
On Wednesday, Trump said he would nominate his chief campaign
fundraiser, Steven Mnuchin, to lead the U.S. Treasury. Mnuchin said
the administration would make tax reform and trade pact overhauls
top priorities as it seeks a sustained pace of 3 percent to 4
percent economic growth.
Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker, also signaled a desire to
remove U.S. mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
from government ownership, a move that could have wide-ranging
ramifications for how Americans pay for their homes, and said
banking regulations should be eased to spur lending.
Trump named Wilbur Ross, a billionaire known for his investments in
distressed industries, as his nominee for commerce secretary. Both
nominees will require confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
Trump is also considering Goldman Sachs President and Chief
Operating Officer Gary Cohn, a former commodities trader, to head
his White House budget office or to fill another position, a Trump
transition official said.
The economic picks were praised by the Business Roundtable, a group
that represents America's largest corporations.
But U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren called Mnuchin
"just another Wall Street insider."
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"That is not the type of change that Donald Trump promised to bring
to Washington - that is hypocrisy at its worst," Sanders, a Vermont
independent who ran for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination,
and Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a joint statement.
Trump pledged during his campaign to "drain the swamp" in
Washington. A spokesman said giving top economic jobs to Wall Street
figures was not inconsistent with that vow.
"You want some people that are insiders and understand the system
and some outsiders that are creative thinkers, out-of-the-box
thinkers and disruptors," said Anthony Scaramucci, an asset manager
who is on Trump's transition committee.
Trump is also working to fill out his foreign policy team, but no
decision appeared imminent on who the next secretary of state would
be.
(Additional reporting by David Lawder and Eric Walsh in Washington
and Melissa Fares in New York; Writing by Roberta Rampton and Arshad
Mohammed; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)
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