1 / 27Days before he took office in January 2017, Donald Trump mounted a stage in New York flanked by a team of attorneys and stacks of manila envelopes to present his answer to a question no other modern president has confronted.
That could change as federal prosecutors and congressional investigators press for more details about Trump’s businesses. Trump faces lawsuits over his ownership of a hotel that caters to foreign guests. And his company has become a central subject in two criminal investigations that have loomed over his administration, one by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian election interference and another examining illegal payments to two women who claim they’d had sex with Trump.
Neither the White House nor the Trump Organization responded to questions about the president's promises. So far throughout Trump’s presidency, two foreign heads of state stayed at Trump’s Washington hotel, the Kuwaiti Embassy booked the hotel for its 2019 National Day celebration, and lobbyists representing the Saudi government paid for blocks of rooms and catering services at the hotel. The lobbyists spent more than $270,000 for the rooms, which came as the country was fighting to roll back a U.S. terrorism law.
.cta-container { border:8px solid;margin:30px 0;padding:30px;width:100%;} .cta-container .headline { margin:0 0 9px;} .cta-container .chatter { margin:0 0 18px;} .btn-container { cursor:pointer;display:inline-block;} .btn-container .btn-link { text-align:center;text-decoration:none;width:inherit;} .btn-container .text-container { font-family:'Unify Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-weight:600;padding:12px 15px 11px 13px;} .btn-container .
“We have a situation now where people who seek to influence the government can funnel bags of cash to the president through his various properties,” Shaub told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. .cta-container { border:8px solid;margin:30px 0;padding:30px;width:100%;} .cta-container .headline { margin:0 0 9px;} .cta-container .chatter { margin:0 0 18px;} .btn-container { cursor:pointer;display:inline-block;} .btn-container .btn-link { text-align:center;text-decoration:none;width:inherit;} .btn-container .text-container { font-family:'Unify Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-weight:600;padding:12px 15px 11px 13px;} .btn-container .
Russian businessman and singer Emin Agalarov told Forbes magazine in 2017 that the Trump Organization had signed a letter of intent to build a Trump Tower in Moscow following the Miss Universe Pageant there in 2013, then in July 2017 emailed the magazine through a representative to deny that any documents were signed. The Trump Organization has not answered questions from USA TODAY about whether this letter of intent was signed, and whether it was ever canceled or rescinded. .
However, the Trump Organization has continued to push forward on early-stage development deals which were made before Trump was elected. Donald Trump Jr. has traveled to India to help launch residential development projects, The Washington Post reported.
Bobby Burchfield, the company's ethics adviser, told USA TODAY in November 2017 that the company uses a four-part test to evaluate deals: is it at fair market value or in the ordinary course of business; is it an appropriate counterparty; is there any indication the deal is intended to curry favor with the president and is there any likelihood the deal could compromise or diminish the Office of the President.
Trump’s sons ended up scrapping a deal this month to open two hotels chains, citing the hostile political climate, The New York Times reported. Some of the hotels were planned in areas that favored Trump in the 2016 election. .oembed-frame { width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;} Additionally, many of the Trump Organization’s deals are licensing deals which result in the “Trump” brand’s placement on buildings or products owned by others – making the deals plainly visible to President Trump.
9. [T]he Trust Agreement will sharply limit the information that the President-Elect receives regarding the Trust’s assets. Reports transmitted to the President-Elect will only reflect the profit or loss of the Company as a whole. The reports will not include an accounting of the performance of each individual business within the Company.Status: Unknown.
There is no way to know the contents of private discussions between Trump and executives of the Trump Organization. The company is run by his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric who say they speak with their father often and are high-profile political surrogates. Two “Certifications of Trustee” signed in January and February 2017 by Trump Jr. and Weisselberg, the documents summarize some – but not all – of the contents of the trust agreement. The Trump Organization has not released the trust agreement itself, which would include more information on how it operates. It allows Trump to retain his businesses and withdraw funds on request.
12. President-Elect Trump will resign from all official positions he holds with The Trump Organization entities.Status: Promise kept. On Jan. 19, 2017, Trump resigned from 488 business entities, according to a list made public by the Trump Organization. 13. President-Elect Trump is appointing an Ethics Advisor to the management team.Status: Promise kept. In January 2017 , the Trump Organization announced that Burchfield, who was the top lawyer on President George H.W. Bush’s 1992 re-election campaign, would be the company’s independent ethics adviser. .oembed-frame { width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;}
.cta-container { border:8px solid;margin:30px 0;padding:30px;width:100%;} .cta-container .headline { margin:0 0 9px;} .cta-container .chatter { margin:0 0 18px;} .btn-container { cursor:pointer;display:inline-block;} .btn-container .btn-link { text-align:center;text-decoration:none;width:inherit;} .btn-container .text-container { font-family:'Unify Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-weight:600;padding:12px 15px 11px 13px;} .btn-container .
.cta-container { border:8px solid;margin:30px 0;padding:30px;width:100%;} .cta-container .headline { margin:0 0 9px;} .cta-container .chatter { margin:0 0 18px;} .btn-container { cursor:pointer;display:inline-block;} .btn-container .btn-link { text-align:center;text-decoration:none;width:inherit;} .btn-container .text-container { font-family:'Unify Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-weight:600;padding:12px 15px 11px 13px;} .btn-container .
While the social accounts are largely free of references to the presidency, Trump’s biography on the Trump Organization website does reference the office. And the president’s sons, who are Trump Organization executives, frequently mix discussions of the business and praise for the president in their personal social media posts.
Huh ?
Trump has his own Axis of Evil
Not true. Many others know also .