Trump says won't divest from his business while president

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Fern

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
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It would be a dumb idea to make him divest.

The 'divesting' is where the opportunity for bribes etc would come into play.

Best to make him retain what he owns.

Fern
 
A

agent00f

Lifer
Jun 9, 2016
12,203
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Fern said:
It would be a dumb idea to make him divest.

The 'divesting' is where the opportunity for bribes etc would come into play.

Best to make him retain what he owns.

Fern
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How so more than acting in the interests of what he owns.
 
F

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
88,246
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Fern said:
It would be a dumb idea to make him divest.

The 'divesting' is where the opportunity for bribes etc would come into play.

Best to make him retain what he owns.

Fern
Click to expand...

Surely you agree that having his family run it is an insane conflict of interest though, right?
 
MomentsofSanity

MomentsofSanity

Lifer
Jan 25, 2011
17,172
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So no tax returns meaning no way to truly know the structure of his business meaning there is no way for anyone to know where possible conflicts are. No divesting so the questions about conflicts will persist through his entire term.

Man given the shit hurled Obamas way the last 8 years I can't way to see the outrage from the same people about this bullshit.
 
A

agent00f

Lifer
Jun 9, 2016
12,203
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MomentsofSanity said:
So no tax returns meaning no way to truly know the structure of his business meaning there is no way for anyone to know where possible conflicts are. No divesting so the questions about conflicts will persist through his entire term.

Man given the shit hurled Obamas way the last 8 years I can't way to see the outrage from the same people about this bullshit.
Click to expand...

Frankly I think it's safe to assume he's continue to do whatever possible to enrich himself by any means necessary, daddy Putin notwithstanding.
 
Fern

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
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agent00f said:
How so more than acting in the interests of what he owns.
Click to expand...

Dirty money in politics is often disguised as a sale or exchange of, say for example, real estate.

'Money' can be transferred to the politician in the form of a below FMV sales price. (I sell Harry Reid a million dollar tract of land for 150K)

Or the reverse can be done. I pay Harry a million for land worth 150K.

I.e., it's the transfer of these assets that provides opportunity for shady dealing.

I'm not concerned about hotel room rentals or buying meals at a Trump restaurant. You can't bribe or influence that way. It's peanuts, and thousands upon thousands of people do it in the ordinary course of business.

Fern
 
A

agent00f

Lifer
Jun 9, 2016
12,203
1,243
86
Fern said:
Dirty money in politics is often disguised as a sale or exchange of, say for example, real estate.

'Money' can be transferred to the politician in the form of a below FMV sales price. (I sell Harry Reid a million dollar tract of land for 150K)

Or the reverse can be done. I pay Harry a million for land worth 150K.

I.e., it's the transfer of these assets that provides opportunity for shady dealing.

I'm not concerned about hotel room rentals or buying meals at a Trump restaurant. You can't bribe or influence that way. It's peanuts, and thousands upon thousands of people do it in the ordinary course of business.

Fern
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So a one-time sale, presumably overseen by some neutral/blind authority, is worse than 8 years of opportunity to overpay and everything else. Must be a coincidence all those executive suite will always be booked & such.
 
OrByte

OrByte

Diamond Member
Jul 21, 2000
9,303
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For all the crap HRC got for "Pay for play" as SoS

Trump is going to do "Pay for play" straight out of the oval office.
 
Fern

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
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fskimospy said:
Surely you agree that having his family run it is an insane conflict of interest though, right?
Click to expand...

No.

Maybe people should review what the term "conflict of interest" actually means. Receiving income from two or more different sources is not a conflict of interest (if it were attorneys would either be poor, due to having only one client, or would all be disbarred).

I can't easily imagine how the operation of hotels, restaurants or golf courses could give rise to a conflict of interest. The exception would be holding assets (hotels or golf courses) in foreign countries where we could have conflicts. E.g., Trump owning hotels and/or golf courses in Russia could be problematic. Imagine Trump (or Congress) imposes sanctions on Russia and Putin responds by confiscating the hotel or golf course in retribution.

Notwithstanding that last bit, I think the best course is no sales, no acquisitions. That would vastly minimize the opportunity for dirty money to flow.

I would like to say I'm surprised by the Dems sudden interest in conflicts of interest when the biggest I've seen has been staring y'all in the face for years now: A giant tax-free bank acct that anybody can come by and drop millions into with no oversight - it's called the Clinton Foundation.

Fern
 
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Fern

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
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agent00f said:
So a one-time sale, presumably overseen by some neutral/blind authority, is worse than 8 years of opportunity to overpay and everything else. Must be a coincidence all those executive suite will always be booked & such.
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Yes, I think so.

BTW: I find the concept of a blind trust utterly inappropriate for Trump's holdings. Blind trusts are for stock/bond holdings/investments. The trustee selects new stock/bonds so the owner/politician has no idea what they own and therefore can't possibly have a conflict of interest. Hotels? Please, the damn things are in the middle of big cities with his freaking name plastered all over them. WTH is blind about that?

Fern
 
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F

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
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Fern said:
No.

Maybe people should review what the term "conflict of interest" actually means. Receiving income from two or more different sources is not a conflict of interest (if it were attorneys would either be poor, due to having only one client, or would all be disbarred).

I can't easily imagine how the operation of hotels, restaurants or golf courses could give rise to a conflict of interest. The exception would be holding assets (hotels or golf courses) in foreign countries where we could have conflicts. E.g., Trump owning hotels and/or golf courses in Russia could be problematic. Imagine Trump (or Congress) imposes sanctions on Russia and Putin responds by confiscating the hotel or golf course in retribution.

Notwithstanding that last bit, I think the best course is no sales, no acquisitions. That would vastly minimize the opportunity for dirty money to flow.

I would like to say I'm surprised by the Dems sudden interest in conflicts of interest when the biggest I've seen has been staring y'all in the face for years now: A giant tax-free bank acct that anybody can come by and drop millions into with no oversight - it's called the Clinton Foundation.

Fern
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Holy shit. You should refer to what a conflict of interest is in a public policy sense. This is insanely, bafflingly wrong.

Conflict of interest is when your financial interests intersect with your professional duties. The financial interests of his family obviously and egregiously intersect with his professional duties.

This is next level incompetence on your part or amazingly motivated reasoning.
 
FelixDeCat

FelixDeCat

Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
31,256
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After watching the press conference I feel more comfortable with my finding that Donald Trump is a great American. Donating foreign payments to his hotels to the Treasury is a wonderful idea.
 
D

Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
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fskimospy said:
Holy shit. You should refer to what a conflict of interest is in a public policy sense. This is insanely, bafflingly wrong.

Conflict of interest is when your financial interests intersect with your professional duties. The financial interests of his family obviously and egregiously intersect with his professional duties.

This is next level incompetence on your part or amazingly motivated reasoning.
Click to expand...

He did later raise a pretty valid point, how exactly would you suggest said conflict of interest be handled?
 
JSt0rm

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
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FelixDeCat said:
After watching the press conference I feel more comfortable with my finding that Donald Trump is a great American. Donating foreign payments to his hotels to the Treasury is a wonderful idea.
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lol. that press conference was a confidence booster for you? hahahahahahahahaahahahaha
 
F

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
88,246
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Darwin333 said:
He did later raise a pretty valid point, how exactly would you suggest said conflict of interest be handled?
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At an absolute minimum put the company in the hands of an independent third party.

Frankly though, the excuse of 'I have to have massive and damaging conflicts of interest for the most powerful country in the world or else I would lose money' is one of the worst excuses ever.
 
kage69

kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
31,726
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soundforbjt said:
Since Trump has properties overseas, won't terror attacks be a possibility? Who's responsible for the security of those properties bearing the president's name?
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That's a scenario I can see happening with Trump. The US military and/or PMCs essentially doing guard duty on the tax payers dime. And we thought dying to get a dictators oil to market was stupid, wait until it's a hotel and golf course.
 
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