It took Donald Trump no less than three tweets after 3 in the morning on Wednesday before he issued a final one in which he proclaimed unilaterally that he would soon to be free of business conflicts of interest while running the presidency of the United States:
I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my . . .
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Nov. 30, 2016
great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! While I am not mandated to . . . .
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Nov. 30, 2016
do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Nov. 30, 2016
Then he finally declared in a triumphant tweet at 3:59 a.m. on Wednesday morning:
Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Nov. 30, 2016?
As NBC News pointed out on Wednesday, these tweets do not in any way clear up concerns about conflicts of interest. “If in fact he just puts his children in charge of the business, it wouldn’t actually eliminate any conflicts of interest, especially when they’ve been sitting in on meetings with foreign leaders,” NBC News wrote.
“What the Trump campaign has done here is bought themselves time to figure out what do to — and a way to answer the continuing barrage of questions about Trump’s business conflicts for the next few weeks.”
And here’s a sampling of some looming conflicts of interest in our weekly roundup of “This week in Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest“:
1. Conflicts keep piling up involving Trump’s hotels.
Trump seems to be dragging the swamp mud he promised to drain right through his brand-new Washington hotel: Trump International Hotel.
As The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, the Independent Community Bankers of America is booking events there. If you’re a betting sort, the odds are better than not that we’ll be seeing more stories about would-be power brokers staying at Trump’s Washington hotel in order to get on good terms with the president-elect.
Indeed one Twitter post this week indicates that Trump International Hotel will the setting of Bahrain National Day next week on Dec. 7.
inbox: invite to Bahrain National Day celebration. location? Trump International. it begins. pic.twitter.com/j8nPklGkCi
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) Nov. 29, 2016
2. Donald Trump is doing business with a top Philippine government official.
Century Properties Group Inc. of Manila is a company that helped back the $150 million Trump Tower in Manila set to open there next year. Although Trump doesn’t own the building and the company is only licensing his name (for $5 million), the chief executive and controlling shareholder of Century Properties is Jose E. B. Antonio. This is the same man who as of last month also served as special government envoy to the United States for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
For his part, Duterte has had a very contentious relationship with President Barack Obama but, according to a Friday article The Hill, he had a talk on Friday with President-elect Trump that one of Duterte’s aides described as “very engaging” and “animated,” and led to Trump inviting Duterte to visit the U.S. next year.
While Antonio, the Manila hotel’s CEO, has claimed to have visited Trump Tower after Trump’s election, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks has denied that he had a chance to meet with Trump himself.