Amid prodding by my colleagues on these issues, he made only the vaguest of promises about firewalling himself off from his companies and investments, while constantly stressing that no clear conflict-of-interest laws govern the presidency, playing down the appearance of corruption as inconsequential and basically suggesting that he intends to continue the kind of seemingly self-dealing moments (photo ops with business partners, self-interested comments to foreign politicians) that have already cropped up during his transition.
There will be no blind trust; he won’t sell off anything, because real estate is too hard to unload; he’s still signing checks (though he would eventually phase that out); he’d love to have his son-in-law working for him (maybe solving the Israel-Palestine problem!) even though nepotism laws might make it hard; his kids would run the business and he could hardly be asked not to have contact with Ivanka, could he?
We didn’t need to worry, he promised, because he didn’t care about his business any more, only about America — though of course he was aware that the Trump Hotel in Washington might see more business, and that his brand was probably doing well worldwide.
Whether or not you believe a politician when he panders, it’s wise to believe him when he doesn’t. So our hour with Donald Trump left me persuaded that whether he governs effectively or incompetently, as a moderate or a conservative or something in between, his administration will be closer to a king’s court than any presidency before it — and it will be very, very good to be the king.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member