President-elect Donald Trump said he will turn down “billions of dollars of deals” during his presidency to avoid any conflicts of interest.
“I’m not going to be doing deals at all,” Trump said in an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday. “I have the right to do it. I just don’t want to do it.”
He added that he turned down “seven deals with one big player, great player” last week “because I thought it could be perceived as a conflict of interest.”
Although there is no federal law that requires him to give up his business interests, many experts think that Trump has an “ethical obligation” to back out of any that could factor “into how he makes decisions as president,” notes CNNMoney.
Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5geNiTgxM_c
During his interview with Wallace, Trump said that that three of his adult children will run his his business empire during his presidency, adding that he won’t have “anything to do with the management” of his company.
“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. “When I ran, everybody knew that I was a very big owner of real estate all over the world.”
To avoid any conflicts of interest, Trump reportedly sold all of his stock in June, because he was “sure he would win the presidential election” and doesn’t “think it’s appropriate” to own stocks while making deals as president, according to a previous report. As of May, his portfolio was worth about $40 million.
Trump is expected to hold a news conference on Thursday where he will detail how he plans to separate himself from his businesses, according to CNNMoney.