Trump postpones news conference on dealing with potential conflicts from his businesses

Donald Trump is postponing this week’s planned news conference on the future of his business empire until next month because he wants to ensure that “proper protocols are put in place”.

Trump had said on Twitter last month that he would hold a “major news conference” December 15 to discuss how the company would move forward once he takes office in January. Seven media organizations were given the opportunity to ask questions on a routine call Tuesday morning, and none asked about Trump’s announcement.

Wallace then asked Trump if his general skepticism towards the intelligence community affected his decision to only receive the presidential daily brief once a week.

“Trump we told your counsel we’d sing your praises if you divested”, the agency tweeted.

“I’m, like, a smart person”, he reasoned.

Keeping the companies in the family could create unprecedented conflicts of interest, analysts say. He has ownership stakes in residential towers, hotels, resorts and golf clubs in the US, and has struck licensing and property management deals for similar properties around the world.

On Twitter, Trump said he’ll be leaving all of his businesses before he takes office in January, and that his sons Don and Eric will manage them in his absence.

The Atlantic previously provided a “crib sheet” summary of Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest.

Trump has already mixed the operations of government and his business by appointing his children to the executive committee of his presidential transition. “That’s why people don’t want to invest in this country”, he said.

“We had a great meeting to talk about our transition”.

“I get it when I need it”, the president-elect said in an interview that aired Sunday on “Fox News Sunday”.

“Every day there are going to be new negotiations, new terms, new transactions within the existing businesses”, said Norm Eisen, a chief White House ethics lawyer for President Barack Obama.

Trump says he has taken at least one step to protect himself from conflicts of interest: selling his stock portfolio in June.

Speaking on CNN, his top advisor Kellyanne Conway attributed the delay to “how convoluted and complex many of these business holdings are”, adding that Trump still intends to relinquish operational control of his company while serving as president.

— Trump’s business ties overseas sprawl, but it’s not clear they run deep. As Trump often points out, presidents are not bound by the strict conflict-of-interest laws that govern most US elected officials.

His daughter Ivanka, long thought to be the heir to the Trump business empire, will instead be moving to DC to play an as-yet undefined role in her father’s presidency, while her stepmother, Melania Trump, remains in NY. “Or collect rent from foreign government-owned companies?”

“He’s going to have to get all the foreign governments out”, Painter said, or he risks “getting impeached”. I do know this: “Other nations are having our lunch”. But modern presidents have put their assets in blind trusts to avoid conflicts. Three of them are in Manhattan — a wholly owned office building on Wall Street and stakes in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and an office tower nearby in midtown — and one is in San Francisco.

Marina Fang contributed reporting.