Hand-wringing over Clinton Foundation and corruption...but let President Trump handle his multi-$B business thru kids (regular, independent)

[ambient]

I'm fascinated how now one on the right has yet even considered this to be a problem, especially after all the grief they dredged up about the Clinton Foundation.

Every other president has put their business interests and investments in a blind trust. That means a true third party administers it, and the president doesn't direct or influence them. Trump, of course, is too good for that; he wants his kids to keep running his family business. And he wants his kids to be insiders and advise him on presidential dealings; Trump is mulling asking for security clearance for his kids.

Now tell me this, people:

How does it play out when Ivanka has a word with her daddy about some policy issue, and they both recognize it has a chance to negatively hit their multi-billion dollar business empire?

How does it play out when Trump's son - whatever his name is - is negotiating a deal with an overseas partner, and the opening basically goes: "Hi there. I'm from Trump Inc. You may know that my daddy just so happens to be leader of the free world. I have lunch and golf with him regularly; I hear you've been trying to get a word in with him for some ideas you want to discuss. So anyway, wanna make a deal with me?"

It does not take a genius to recognize what a sham of a "blind trust" it is if Trump just turns over his business holdings to his kids and pretends there is appropriate separation. And Trump hasn't shown any indication to be taking this seriously. His answer is: "just trust me, it'll be fine." (also happens to be his answer on policy positions as well). But given his past dealings with his business and his Foundation, can we really trust him?

You think Clinton was bad? Just wait. If there is a path I could see that could possibly get Trump impeached, this would be it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.a44db61895e3

Every president for the past four decades has used some combination of a blind trust or widely diversified, publicly traded holdings to ensure that their decisions are conflict-free. A blind trust is defined by federal law as one in which a federal official selects an independent trustee (with no familial ties) who sells the official’s known assets and purchases investments unknown to the official. That is what makes it blind.

The president-elect and his spokespeople have instead suggested that he will allow his children to guide his enterprises while he retains all or most of the ownership interest. This arrangement has two major flaws. First, Trump will know what is in the trust. (He cannot put Trump Tower in a blind trust and then forget that he owns it.) Second, he knows the people who will be managing the assets; he is their father. This is the opposite of a blind trust. It is a demand that the American people blindly trust Trump and his family.

[middle-aged mom]

No law that a president put their holdings into blind trusts. Nonetheless in modern times, they have.

Trump is the sole or principal owner of more than 500 business with 264 bearing the Trump name. These businesses are spread across the globe. He owes bank, domestic and foreign, $ billions. How do you regulate, investigate, negotiate and fine banks that have extended $ hundreds of millions in credit? How do you renegotiate the terms of a loan without creating a perception of a conflict of interest?

Trump won the competitive bid to lease the DC Post office property from the Federal Government. The losers all agree he paid too much and will need to get an average room rate of more than $700/ night to cover his debt to the Federal Government and Deutche Bank. What happens if the losers are right and he can't cover the nut and needs to renegotiate terms with the Federal Government and Deutche Bank? What happens if it becomes necessary for Trump to file for bankruptcy, again?

Then there's his son in law, Jared Kushner, another born into a privately- held real estate dynasty. Christie prosecuted Jared's father and obtained a conviction and prison term from the courts. No surprise that Christie is out. Kushner Properties owns more than 20,000 multi family rental complexes in NJ and NYC. He works with investment partners and banks to achieve his goals and like Trump carries a serious debt load.

Trump has made clear he is stepping away from the day to day and his children will manage the businesses.

Alrighty then. They have no business advising their father on anything related to the Federal Government yet they are.

Disclaimer: I decided to vote for Trump in the voting booth although it did not matter to me which nominee won.

Very difficult to prove or disprove Play to Pay and perception matters more than reality.

If I had one piece of advice for Trump ( yeah sure ) it would be to build a rock solid was between he and his children and son in law as it relates to anything that does not involve the birthdays of his grandchildren.

Things can go sideways in a heartbeat.