Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Walter M. Shaub said Trump’s plan to separate himself from his business interests doesn’t follow the tradition of presidents from the past four decades.
“This is not a blind trust,” he said. “It’s not even close.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump announced that he would place his vast business holdings in a trust controlled by his adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and that he would relinquish his leadership of the Trump Organization.
Trump will not sell his stake in the business, however. Under a blind trust, Trump would sell his holdings and let an independent manager invest the proceeds. That way, he could not profit directly from decisions he makes as president.
Shaub said the Trump plan “adds nothing to the equation.”
The ethics director also shed light on a strange string of enthusiastic tweets his office sent in November that pre-emptively congratulated Trump for divesting himself of his business holdings — a move Trump never promised to make.
The tweets used words like “Bravo!” and “Brilliant!” to describe such a plan. Reporters wondered whether the ethics office’s Twitter feed had been hacked.
“I was trying to use the vernacular of the president-elect’s favorite social media to encourage him to divest,” Shaub said on Wednesday. “This has been my position from that start.”
Shaub said there was “still time” for Trump to build on what he has announced so far to “come up with something that will resolve his conflicts of interests.”
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