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Is Trump a Target for Blackmail?
"No new deals" might be the new mantra in Trumpland - but the problem is still the same: Donald Trump's entire presidency is going to be one big conflict of interest. For months now, Trump has been pressed to explain just how he'll divest from his massive business empire once he takes office.
There are some very real constitutional questions at stake here, and the president elect was supposed to use a press conference this Thursday -- his first since the election -- to answer them.
But Trump has now cancelled Thursday's press conference and rescheduled it for some time in January before the inauguration, effectively the last possible moment he could push it back to without getting into some very sketchy legal waters, sketchier waters than he's in right now.
The only new information we really have at this point about Trump's divestment plan is from a series of tweets he sent out last night.
Even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my busineses before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the......
Presidency. Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage them. No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office.
The new plan is apparently to hand off the Trump Empire to Eric and Donald, Jr. after January 20th under the explicit condition that they make "no new deals" while daddy is president.
While this obviously sounds better than the alternative -- a Trump business empire under control of the Trump sons that IS capable of making new deals -- but it's still a huge conflict of interest.
Even if they aren't making new deals, Eric and Don, Jr. are still Donald Trump's sons, and any foreign or domestic assets they control will be seen by powerful people all over the world as a way to gain leverage over the President of United States and vice versa.
There's also the question of security.
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Thom Hartmann Program
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