One thing for sure, if the American people are counting on Trumpco to police itself against conflicts of interest, they will be sucked dry by them. Apparently Mr Trump wouldn’t know a conflict of interest if it bit him on the nose. Makes sense. He’s always been a sales guy for his own private companies; it’s always been only the Donald looking after the Donald, and he’s trained his kids to do likewise. But if Americans let this continue from their commander-in-chief they are duped indeed. This will cost them plenty.
Every robust system needs to balance opposing interests in order to be strong and sustainable. Government is not business and was never meant to be. The two are supposed to be separate. Business is business, and in recent years, publicly traded businesses have adopted a primary duty to their shareholders alone. Government leaders meanwhile, are appointed to represent the best interests of not themselves, their buddies and families, but the nation and its people as a whole. There are naturally competing interests that must be separated and acknowledged in order to be properly served and balanced.
The slogan needs to be: Make representatives and advisers fiduciaries again! Wake up America, please. See Trump’s ethics plan is even worse than you thought:
The Trumps make it hard for all of us to draw clear lines around some of these things because they don’t draw clear lines themselves.
More likely than not, the Trumps’ hesitation to do so stems from the simple reality that they aren’t serious about leaving their business dealings behind in the name of public service. Trump himself has historically been enamored of making money almost any way he can, and that behavior isn’t likely to change now -– especially if he saw his presidential bid from the very beginning as a marketing effort that could ultimately fatten his wallet, and not really as a crusade to make America great again.