Donald Trump Axes Thursday’s Planned Address About His Business Conflicts Of Interest – Update

UPDATED 3:40 PM: Three days before a planned news conference in which Donald Trump was to address potential conflicts of interest involving his business dealings, the president-elect abruptly has canceled the event. No new date has been set. The move comes as Trump had been facing increasing bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill about his plans to separate purse and state. Bloomberg first reported the news. For the record, no tweet about the cancellation was issued.

PREVIOUSLY, November 30: In a series of early-morning tweets, President-elect Donald Trump has declared that he will be leaving his “great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country” and, repeating his mantra, to “Make America Great Again!” He also announced that he will be holding “a major news conference” with his children in New York on December 15 to discuss the move and that legal documents are being crafted to remove him from his business operations. Because, he says, “The Presidency is a far more important task!”

There has been concern raised from constitutional lawyers and ethics counselors on both sides of the aisle over the President-elect/real estate mogul/erstwhile reality TV star’s potential conflicts. Reuters notes that Trump had previously argued he had no need to separate himself from the Trump Organization which has vast real estate interests among holdings in other areas.

He told The New York Times last week his brand “is certainly a hotter brand than it was before.” He also said, “In theory, I can be president of the United States and run my business 100 percent, sign checks on my business… In theory, I could run my business perfectly, and then run the country perfectly. And there’s never been a case like this where somebody’s had, like, if you look at other people of wealth, they didn’t have this kind of asset and this kind of wealth, frankly. It’s just a different thing.”

But, he added, “As far as the, you know, potential conflict of interests, though, I mean I know that from the standpoint, the law is totally on my side, meaning, the president can’t have a conflict of interest.”

Today, Trump says that while he is “not mandated to do this under the law,” he feels it is “visually important” that there be no conflict of interest with his various businesses.

See for yourself below:

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