Showing posts with label refusal to divest from business holdings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label refusal to divest from business holdings. Show all posts

Friday, August 11, 2017

Amid all the craziness, don’t forget: Trump is using the presidency to enrich his family; Washington Post, August 11, 2017

Sarah Posner, Washington Post; Amid all the craziness, don’t forget: Trump is using the presidency to enrich his family

"As Walter Shaub, the since-departed director of the Office of Government Ethics, has said of Trump’s refusal to divest from his business holdings, “a conflict of interest is anything that creates an incentive to put your own interests before the interests of the people you serve.” Trump’s continued stake in the hotel and ongoing promotion of it by using his name as the draw risks the appearance of “using the presidency for private gain,” Shaub told Vox.

One of the biggest challenges of the post-Trump era will be how to restore the norms and standards that Trump has so blithely trashed. Someday, Americans — from the people who run our government to the citizens in every corner of the country — will have to reckon with what he has done, and figure out how to undo it. That process will probably have to start with some basic reminders that the presidency is not for sale."