The Washington Post is Tracking How Trump is Using Presidency to Boost His Business

Thanks to Philip Bump at The Washington Post‘s The Fix, we are going to have a pretty good idea of what Donald Trump is doing to

In what he calls “A running list of how Donald Trump’s new position may be helping his business interests,” Bump writes that,

“For the first time in 40 years, Americans elected a president who didn’t provide detailed tax records; for the first time in history, we elected a president whose only experience is rooted in those businesses we don’t really know anything about.”

And yes, no matter what Donald Trump claims, this is a problem. Trump tweeted another complaint Monday about the scrutiny:

The reason the “media makes this a big deal!” is because it is a big deal. Kurt Eichenwald offered an example the other day:

And as Bump explains,

The Post’s Drew Harwell and Anu Narayanswamy took a look at where and how Trump’s business empire might conflict with the business of government. Trump has stated that he will hand over management of the Trump Organization to his children, but it’s not clear how that will prevent conflicts. At the same time, Trump’s decision to skip the traditional traveling press pool as president-elect means that there’s less transparency about whom he’s meeting with and when.

Paul Krugman has warned us to expect “unprecedented corruption” out of the Trump White House, and he is far from alone.

Donald Trump cannot and will not separate his business empire from the office of president, and that means disaster for the people he claims to represent. As Eichenwald also pointed out,

“A serious constitutional issue. Trump is already taking $ directly from foreign govnts. He financed hotel himself. Will Trumpers care?”

Our president, and our foreign policy – the United States itself – is for sale to the highest bidder, except in those cases where it might conflict with Trump’s income, and perhaps even then if the price is right.

As Bump concludes, “It’s already clear, though, that — even without detailed information about Trump’s business interests — there are significant reasons to be concerned about how and where Trump’s personal interests overlap with the power that he’ll inherit on Jan. 20.”

I wouldn’t bet on the United States.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.