Trump delays announcement on his business until January
Donald Trump’s announcement on how he intends to separate his business conflicts from his presidential responsibilities has been postponed until January
Donald Trump said last month he would be leaving his business 'in total' (Photo: AP)
US President-elect Donald Trump has delayed an announcement on how he plans to separate his business empire interests from his role as US President to avoid conflicts of interest.
Trump has delayed the announcement originally set for this week until January, his spokesman said on Monday.
Last month Trump said he would hold a news conference on Thursday to spell out how he would separate himself "in total" from his worldwide business holdings.
Among Trump's holdings are hotels and golf resorts from Panama to Scotland, besides a winery and modelling agency. Legal experts say the only way he could entirely avoid conflicts of interest would be to sell his global holdings.
After Trump's victory, his company, the Trump Organisation, said it was looking at new business structures with the goal of transferring control to Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, three of his children who are involved with the company.
In a series of messages on social network Twitter, Trump said he would leave his businesses before taking office on 20January, to focus on the presidency.
"Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage them," Trump tweeted late on Monday. "No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office."
The messages did not mention a role for Ivanka Trump in the businesses. Trump added that he would hold a news conference in the "near future" to discuss business matters, his cabinet picks and other topics.
In a series of tweets last month, Trump said, "Legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations." He did not say what the planned change might mean for ownership of his businesses.
The President-elect’s various holdings present a variety of possible conflicts of interest. Although federal ethics laws do not directly apply to the presidency, Trump risks a constitutional violation under the emoluments clause. That provision found in Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the US constitution provides that “no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state”.
