President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview Sunday that his executives would run his business empire alongside his children, pushing back against charges that his vast real estate holdings would pose a conflict of interest for him in the White House.
Trump has said he will leave day-to-day control of his business but has not yet offered details of how he intends to separate himself. He is planning to hold a news conference on Thursday to discuss the future of his company.
In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Trump said he would not be “doing deals at all.”
“My executives will run it with my children. It’s a big company, it’s a great company. But I’m going to have nothing to do with management,” Trump said. He also noted that when he ran for president, “everybody knew that I was a very big owner of real estate all over the world.”
But in a sign of how Trump continues to play a role with his company while he fills out his Cabinet, the incoming president said he had turned down “seven deals with one big player, great player, last week because I thought it could be perceived as a conflict of interest.”
Since his victory last month, government ethics lawyers have pressured Trump to sell his assets and put the money in a blind trust overseen by an independent manager not related to him. They contend that approach is the only way to avoid conflicts between his sprawling business holdings of roughly 500 companies in more than a dozen countries and his work as president.
Trump owns golf clubs, office towers and properties in several countries and has struck licensing deals for use of his name on hotels and other buildings around the world. One of Trump’s lenders, Deutsche Bank, is in settlement talks with the Justice Department over its role in the mortgage blowup that sparked the 2008 financial crisis.
Presidents are not required to set up blind trusts. While federal ethics rules place strict limits on nearly all government employees and elected officials, the rules do not apply to the president.
Trump, in the interview, gave no indication that he was considering taking steps to sell assets or create a blind trust. The Trump Organization has said previously that the future president intends to transfer control of the company to his three adult children.
Asked about his children’s roles, Trump said, “It’s totally different. They’re not president.” He added that his children are “not making deals either, for my company.”
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly assailed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s ties to foreign governments and corporations that had donated money to her family’s charity, the Clinton Foundation, and asserted that it had created a massive conflict of interest.
Pressed on his company profiting from foreign countries booking events at Trump’s new Washington hotel, Trump argued that the circumstances — and his deal-making — were different. “You know, under the law, I have the right to do it. I just don’t want to do it. I don’t want to do deals, because I want to focus on this.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Trump has proved that he can run for election with amazing stamina, while overseeing some of his work. The secret was to raising his children to be capable of taking over at the drop of a hat, which is the secret of a real good executive anyhow. It’s none of anyone’s business who is running the show until it is proves that he neglects one or the other. I don’t think it will ever come to this because of his smarts and his energy.
Mr. Trump you had better cut all ties with your companies or the left will hunt you down like they should have done to Hillary. That being said, I wish you luck and I do hope you truly are the balm that this nation needs, but I have my doubts, only time will tell.
It is the first time in my life that I voted for someone. Trump and now I am not so sure. He is self centered and will not take meetings says he knows it all and does not have to Well he is wrong he does not know it all.
Trump You’re the Big Dog we have needed for years,I agree wholeheartedly! Fantastic Big Dog, Do all the roaring you need …. those of us who put you there … in the White House…knew all along what you were capable of…. And now those who stupidly stood back barking like a little puppy/doggie can learn what you mean when you said the master doesn’t always tell the enemy what his game plan is … just watch America … when Big Dog says you’ll know in time when the time comes … listen to him…. and stop trying to get Trump to tell all the enemies what his plans are…. if he tells you … he has told the whole wide world…. So all you little puppies use a little common sense and grow with the big dog leading your path … Trump would have won the popular vote by a landslide(and I still say he won the popular vote if it had not been for all the people dead and illegally had not voted) if you stupid little snotty-nose pups… worrying about your own ego’s who said …vote your conscious had not been looking forward to 2020 instead of getting the presidency forum back…. you put the cart before the horse… and it almost cost the election…. so Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Bushes and all the others who shot yourselves in the foot…. for the whole Republican Party you need to stop evading the apology you need to publicly make to gain back the confidence that you republicans desperately need for 2020. We can all move forward if you come out and say publicly that you didn’t see in Trump what his supporters saw from the get-go and you’re sorry for disrupting the landslide that we could have had… all of this controversy that the election is going through right now and has went through with the riots, luting and damaging ….could have been avoided and Clinton would have not expecting to win …. had your egos not got the best of all you anti-Thumpers. You all are going to see that Trump hasn’t just got his supporters behind him… God is in this also…. if you’d been paying attention to the churches rhetoric and guidance God was giving his peeps you would have known that God was in this also…. DON’T ever underestimate God… when he wants a job done he knows where his helpers come from… if you don’t believe me just go look at Saul’s/Paul’s life from beginning to the end… God uses his choices for his Goods ….. so do what you know you have to do… swallow your undue pride and do it now bc if you wait too long you’re going to ruin it for the republicans in 2020… it’s now or never…you did the damage publicly so the apology has to be publicly …. just do it now…or 2020 will be lost… you can’t hide away in a Trump Tower meeting and make things right to us America Trump Supporters…. Nancy McAlexander