Should Mr Trump Completely Divest ?

[Clyde]

This is one of those issues that shouldn't be partisan.

 

Nutshell: Mr Trump owes millions of dollars to various banks (some state-owned).

 

He has not said if he will completely divest. He said he will step away but have his kids run the business. I think we can all see through that smokescreen.

 

Ex: He owes $300M+ to Deutsche Bank. The US Justice Dept is looking to settle $14B in fines/penalties for its bad products that helped create the last financial crisis.

 

So if the settlement is not completed by Jan 20 we would then have a person running the country who personally owes millions to bank that is not paying its fines and one that would be looking for a deal.

 

We all agree that's not cool, right?

 

Is there anyone on here who thinks that the Trump family keeping its businesses , especially those that owe millions in loans, in the family control?

 

Here's an article detailing his debt.

 

A Guide to Donald Trump's Huge Debts—and the Conflicts They Present | Mother Jones

[Clyde]

I should add that one debtor is selling its business. If Mr Trump does not divest we would then have either a private business or potentially a state-owned bank bidding on Mr Trump's debt.

 

Imagine the power/leverage they would have.

[Habib]

This is an issue where there's a lot of grey area.

 

His business interests certainly do raise a lot of questions.

 

But, outside of the Emoluments Clause, I'm not sure there's much restraint on what the president can or can't do about their personal business. Frankly, I have no idea how that clause has been used or interpreted in the past. And I do understand his business is different than owning a fortune in stocks, which could be easily sold and placed in a blind trust.

 

With that said, it's incumbent on Trump to convince the public he's not using the government to benefit his businesses, whether he creates some sort of legal structure to separate himself from the business or otherwise stays out of it.

 

His ability to profit from his governing would be a ready-made excuse for Congressional Republicans to disown him if things turn south, or it would enrage the populous enough they would demand something be done about it. I don't know if anything could rise to this level in our divided and deeply partisan society, but millions of people have taken to the streets in South Korea over their president's use of power to extort money from businesses for personal gain.

[Clyde]

For this debate I am not asking about legalities. I'm not smart enough to interpret that.

 

I'm asking about optics and the ability to properly govern.

[Hellcats]

Doesn't he essentially turn into the pay4play candidate he beat?

 

Refreshing.

[Habib]

For this debate I am not asking about legalities. I'm not smart enough to interpret that.

 

I'm asking about optics and the ability to properly govern.

 

My fear is if he did do something completely shady - let's say he intervened in the Deutsche Bank case with the DoJ (which would be rather complicated) or changed American policy re: a foreign country in a way that benefited his company - not enough people would care. It would be dismissed with "liberal media, Benghazi, etc." We've already got his supporters in this forum cheerleading Putin. I thought I'd seen it all.

[Bengal Maniac]

He has money everywhere. I am not sure he could divest it all. This does not concern me near as much as his being in bed with Russia.

[Bluegrasscard]

So what is different than any other modern Presidents?

[Bengal Maniac]

So what is different than any other modern Presidents?

 

No President in our time has as much capital as DJT, not even close. Trying to compare his wealth to even JFK's is not in the ballpark.

[Bengal Maniac]

DJT Net Worth 2016 4.5 billion

 

JFK Net Worth 1960 100Million = 804 million in 2016

 

Bill Clinton 80 million 2016

 

George W Bush 35 Million 2016

 

Goerge HW Bush 25 million

 

Obama 12.2 million

 

Again none of this is chump change but DJT is at a whole other level.

[Mitch Rapp]

I would rather have Trump making money from his privately held businesses than having political hacks like Bill and Hillary Clinton peddling influence to amass their personal fortunes. I would respect the opinions of those who opine that Trump should divest himself of his business interests had they expressed outrage at how the Clintons became wealthy while producing or selling nothing of value except political influence.

 

Let Trump keep his businesses and if he uses his office for personal profit, then treat him as the Clintons should have been treated. Impeach him, remove him from office, and prosecute any of his family members who commit any crimes.

[Bengal Maniac]

Even though I don't think he can divest himself nor do I particularly care. I believe he ran for President were 1) inflate his HUGE ego and 2) grow his financial empire. The rest of the stuff is all show to get at the two.

[JDEaston]

No President in our time has as much capital as DJT, not even close. Trying to compare his wealth to even JFK's is not in the ballpark.

 

So since he won, it's time to change things? This was never an issue, until he won....

 

He has done the best he can to somewhat eliminate himself from his business by handing it over to his kids. I'm not naive enough to believe that he won't still be involved in some way or fashion, but what else do you expect him to do? Trump is in a lose/lose situation with some of you and he's not even in office yet. Crazy...

[Jumper_Dad]

How could he possibly Divest his entire portfolio and holdings when they are businesses that he (his company) owns, not ones he is simply invested in...which would be easy.

 

As Bengal said, we've never really had a situation like this. The fact that a multi-billion dollar company has loans with banks around the world isn't surprising, is it?

 

I know there is a lot of "Hand Wringing" and people "Unable to get their heads around this" yet, but I've yet to see a solution to this issue brought forward that makes sense.

[Jumper_Dad]

Even though I don't think he can divest himself nor do I particularly care. I believe he ran for President were 1) inflate his HUGE ego and 2) grow his financial empire. The rest of the stuff is all show to get at the two.

 

1) Probably to some extent, so many told him he couldn't or scoffed at the idea...I think his ego did drive him to push forward and run. He initially had said he thought he'd be out by Oct 2015.

2) I honestly don't think that was part of the equation. If that's all he wanted to do he could have just donated to the Clinton Foundation and got anything he wanted done, when HRC was elected.