For a public figure
interested in dropping a piece of news with little to no scrutiny or push-back, there are few opportunities better than a Christmas holiday
weekend after an election. Reporters are checked out for the holidays
and desperate for a few days to unplug after an insufferably long
campaign season. Much of the rest of the country is in the same frame of
mind. Nobody wants to read the news.
So
it’s not entirely surprising that President-elect Donald Trump waited
until Christmas Eve to announce that he intends to shutter the Donald
Trump Foundation, his unorthodox charity that has faced persistent allegations of corruption and self-dealing.
But Trump put the best possible face on this decision, claiming that he
wants to close the foundation to head off any potential conflicts of
interest. “To avoid even the appearance of any conflict with my role as
President,” Trump said in a statement, “I have decided to continue to
pursue my strong interest in philanthropy in other ways.”
As my colleague Matthew Rozsa notes,
closing the charity won’t be so simple, given that the foundation is
still under investigation by the New York attorney general’s office and
can’t be dissolved until that inquiry wraps up. But let’s take a step
back and grapple with the broader argument Trump is making: As the
incoming president, he has to close his charity to head off the
appearance of conflicts. For anyone else, this would be a prudent
measure and a show of commitment to ethical governing principles. For
Trump, however, it’s just another lie.
It’s not actually possible
for Trump to “avoid even the appearance of any conflict” with the Trump
Foundation, because those conflicts already exist. One of the largest donors
to the Trump Foundation over the past few years has been WWE co-founder
Linda McMahon, who (along with her husband Vince) directed several
million dollars to the charity. McMahon was recently tapped by Trump to
be the next head of the Small Business Administration. In 2013, the
Trump Foundation sent an illegal donation
to a political group connected to Florida attorney general Pam Bondi,
who at the time was weighing the possibility of suing Trump over his
Trump University scam. Bondi secured a position on the Trump transition team shortly after the election. Read More ....
