But most presidents in recent decades have placed their personal
assets in blind trusts so they do not know how their decisions influence their personal fortunes.
The positives of his first two years in politics have been swamped by his star - crossed attempt at tax reform and his failure to put his personal
assets in a blind trust.
In addition his complete failure to appreciate the political consequences of not putting his financial
assets in a blind trust raised questions as to whether he should be in politics at all.
He promised to separate himself from his businesses and put
his assets in a blind trust.
He promised last week to sell all of his roughly one million shares in the company and place all his other substantial
assets in a blind trust — a step he says the ethics commissioner told him in 2015 would not be necessary.
In hopes of quieting accusations linked to how he handled his personal fortune upon entering public office in 2015, Morneau pledged last week to sell at least $ 21 million worth of stock and place his other
assets in a blind trust.
Not exact matches
With a true
blind trust, Painter says, a president would typically sell his business, and then have an independent trustee — someone with no familial ties — reinvest the proceeds
in assets the president doesn't even know have been selected.
Eisen and Richard Painter, White House ethics adviser to President George W. Bush between 2005 and 2007, on Tuesday wrote an op - ed
in the Washington Post urging Trump to put his «conflict - generating
assets in a true
blind trust run by an independent trustee.»
Instead, they will most likely put their
assets in index funds or
in a diversified
blind trust, and then pay the tax bill on those
assets when they sell them.
The standard practice is to put the
assets — stocks and bonds and such — into a
blind trust that is managed independently of the president so he can't know what he is specifically invested
in.
Had Trump taken the measures suggested repeatedly by ethics experts on both sides of the political aisle, he would by now have put his
assets in what's called a
blind trust, which would entail turning over his empire to a third party with whom he will have no contact, who would sell off the properties and reinvest the resulting money
in other
assets without providing the president any information about the sales or the purchases.
Moreover,
in an actual
blind trust, Trump would have turned his
assets over to a trustee with whom he would have no contact.
The presidents who are
in governance generally give away the ownership of their
assets or create a
blind trust to avoid conflict of interest.
A Herald / Times investigation found that Scott may only be disclosing those
assets held
in his newly - formed personal
blind trust, not the
assets held
in his families»
trust, raising questions about the completeness of his reports.
Larry Tribe and others believe that President elect Trump's ownership of active business
assets, even
in a
blind trust, would violate, Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution which prevents the President from accepting «presents» or «Emolument» from foreign states.
For example, to avoid a conflict of interest between benefiting one's personal holdings and the Country's best interests,
assets of the President are placed
in a
blind trust.
Certain lawyers are asking the president - elect Trump and family to sell all his
assets including vast world - wide real estate at fire - sale prices and place the proceeds
in a
blind trust or US Treasury bonds.
Complete divestiture of businesses and all
assets placed
in a
blind (not «run by my kids»)
trust.
Does «
blind» mean that all the publicly visible
assets of the Trump Organisation, including buildings and trademarks would have to be sold, with the
trust keeping the details of what they bought
in exchange secret?
The measure calls on Trump to place his
assets in a «true
blind trust» with managers operating independently of the owner.