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Category: US Elections / Corporate Governance / World Politics

Trump's presidency will be 'hopelessly conflicted', corporate governance expert says

Thursday, 19 Jan 2017 13:20:25 | Stephen Long

Some in Trump's family will be involved in the White House, while others look after his businesses. (Reuters: Mike Segar)

Donald Trump will be a "hopelessly conflicted president" with an unrivalled array of commercial conflicts of interest that threaten to undermine the presidency, according to a leading expert on corporate governance.

"I doubt he will survive two years," Professor Thomas Clarke, director of the Key University Research Centre on Corporate Governance at UTS, told the ABC. "It could be months."

"We have never in history seen anything like this, the conflicts of interest are unprecedented."

The Trump business empire spans more than 140 companies, with interests in at least 25 countries, according to filings with United States regulators — raising fears the President-elect's commercial interests could taint decision-making on both domestic and foreign policy.

"Whatever decisions his government might reach with regards to either domestic policy or overseas policy, people will inevitably point the finger and say he is protecting and extending his business interests and the Trump brand rather than the United States of America," Professor Clarke said.

Trump's planned business arrangements 'wholly inadequate'

Mr Trump proposes that his sons will run the Trump organisation under a trust structure and says he will play no part in the business while he is president.

"Don and Eric are going to be running the company, they are going to run it in a very professional manner, they are not going to discuss it with me," he told reporters at his recent press conference.

But the director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, said this was wholly inadequate, and that Mr Trump must either appoint an independent party to sell his business interests or establish a genuine blind trust without any involvement of members of the Trump family.

"This is not a blind trust, it's not even close, the only thing it has in common with a blind trust is the word trust," Mr Shaub said at a Brooking Institutions address on January 11.

"His sons are running the business and of course he knows what he owns."

Legal experts warn Mr Trump's refusal to formally divest himself of his global business empire may place him in breach of a constitutional provision, known as the emoluments clause, that forbids officeholders from receiving any form of payment from a foreign government.

"He's going to be in violation of a host of conflicts laws, starting with the one in the Constitution which prohibits him from getting foreign government payments, he's getting them all over the world today," White House ethics lawyer Norman Eisen has said.

Overseas interests will attempt to capitalise on connections

Nations are already looking to capitalise on Trump connections.

Prior to Mr Trump's election, the strongman president of Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, made a Trump business partner an envoy to the USA.

The chair of Century Properties Group, Jose EB Antonio, is now envoy to Washington for trade, investment and economic affairs.

The company is building the Trump Tower at Century City — a $150 million, 57-storey apartment building in metropolitan Manila — though Mr Trump's involvement is limited to the licensing of his brand name.

Professor Clarke described this as, "the first instance of an overseas leader currying favour through commercial interests of the new president of the United States. It's very unsavoury and it's very worrying for the future."

But it is not the only one. Earlier this month the ABC reported on an Indonesian businessman building a Trump-branded golf resort, and who is also considering running for his nation's presidency.

Professor Clarke said the conflicts of interest were not limited to the incoming president.

"His entire cabinet is conflicted," he added.

"The Secretary of State is the best friend of Vladimir Putin in Russia; the treasurer (Treasury Secretary) made his money out of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and is a film financier in Hollywood whose latest movie is The Rules Don't Apply; the Commerce Secretary is a speculator and the Labor Secretary is opposed to the minimum wage and made his fortune out of the dubious labour practices in fast food restaurants; the Environment Secretary is a former governor of Texas who, when he was a presidential candidate, declared that the Department of Environment should be abolished.

"This is a coalition of business interests, not a representative, democratically-accountable government."

You can hear Stephen Long's interview with Professor Thomas Clarke on Business PM at 6:50pm on ABC Radio across the country.

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