President-elect Donald Trump thinks the news surrounding his potential conflicts of interest isn’t so newsworthy after all.
On Monday Trump took to Twitter and implied that voters knew about these potential conflicts between his business and government duties well before the election.
Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world.Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
Trump’s response comes after concerns about gray areas between his newfound presidency and his international business.
A week after the election, Trump met with Indian business partners in India, though it’s unclear what they discussed. Amanda Miller, the Trump Organization vice president of marketing, said the meeting was a “brief passing and exchange of ‘hellos.’ …No business of any sorts was conducted.”
Then, according to the Hill, Trump reportedly used time during a congratulatory call from Argentinan President Mauricio Macri to push for a stalled building project in Buenos Aires. A spokesperson for Macri who was with the president during the call has since denied the allegations.
And between his more than 500 business entities and his loans from the Bank of China, the events from the past two weeks are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to possible conflicts of interest for the president-elect.
Trump’s lawyer said Trump will separate himself from the Trump Organization and give the company to his adult children—Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric—in a familial-based “blind trust,” though they also serve on his transition team executive committee.
“The fact that [the children] have been included as part of the transition team just shows how inappropriate their role in bridging the gap between him as a businessman and politician is,” Meredith McGehee, a strategic adviser at the Campaign Legal Center, told the Washington Post at the time. “It’s a clear demonstration that there is no firewall between the two.”
H/T the Huffington Post
