Will Trump Take His Name Off His Businesses?

Congressman, senators, and high-level executive appointee are all required to disclose their financial interests, and recuse themselves from government business that could have an impact on their own bottom line. But no such restrictions exist for presidents — even those like President-elect Donald Trump, whose massive investments and financial interests could be affected by public policy.

The scope of Trump’s potential conflicts is vast. He owns stock in defense contractors; on the campaign trail, he vowed to increase the size of the US Navy. Trump Palace Condominiums, one of his subsidiary companies, leasesto the federal government, meaning President Trump is poised to become his own company’s landlord. Trump also owes millions of dollars to Deutsche Bank — which is currently negotiating a fraud settlement with the Department of Justice, an agency which President Trump will oversee.

“There's a massive opportunity for corruption,” Andrew Stark, a professor at the University of Toronto and author of “Conflict of Interest in American Public Life,”  told International Business Times. “To have a president in office whose judgment could be skewed — that's very, very disturbing.”

All other members of a Trump administration would be required to untangle themselves from these sorts of conflicts. Federal ethics laws make it a crime for any employee of the executive branch to participate “personally and substantially” in a matter where they have “a financial interest.” And the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal, sets up strict disclosures requirements for officials and their families to ensure that conflicts aren't being hidden. 

But in 1989, the Senate specifically exempted the president and vice president from any legal penalties that could arise from a conflict of interests, as a way to shield President Ronald Reagan from a pending ethics investigation.

So, legally, all Trump is required to do is file a standard financial disclosure form from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) to the Federal Election Comission. He filed his form back in 2015. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly deflected questions about his still-unreleased tax returns by pointing out that his OGE disclosure form is  104 pages long:  “the largest in the history of the FEC,” he said at the time.