When he first announced his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump’s pitch was centered on his wealth. He was so successful in business that it meant he knew how to run the country. He was so rich that it meant he didn’t need to take donations. He was so savvy that he knew how to work the systems of which he had been a part.
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Eventually, as his candidacy flourished, people got around to asking what now seems like an obvious question: Well, what happens to the company if you win?
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During a debate in January 2016, after Trump was already the front-runner for the nomination, the subject was raised by Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. If elected, would he put his business in a blind trust as others had before him?
“If I become president,” Trump insisted, “I couldn’t care less about my company. It’s peanuts. I want to use that same up here” — he pointed at his head — “whatever it may be, to make America rich again and to make America great again.”
Bartiromo tried to clarify: So a blind trust?
Trump wasn’t sure about the structure, he said, but anticipated that he “would probably have my children run it with my executives and I wouldn’t ever be involved because I wouldn’t care about anything but our country, anything.”
A year later, he was poised to be inaugurated as president. He held a news conference, his first in months, to present how he would be separating his business from his new position.
The plan — handing over control of the company to his sons and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg — was outlined by attorney Sheri Dillon.
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“President-elect Trump wants there to be no doubt in the minds of the American public that he is completely isolating himself from his business interests,” Dillon said. “He instructed us to take all steps realistically possible to make it clear that he is not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit.”
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“As president, I could run the Trump organization, great, great company, and I could run the company — the country,” Trump himself said. “I’d do a very good job, but I don’t want to do that.”
Or did he?
On Thursday, former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout was called to the stand in Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan. Westerhout was Trump's central point of interaction with the outside world during the first two years of his presidency — a role that, she testified, included frequent interactions with the Trump Organization.
Westerhout would regularly ask questions of Trump Organization employees and vice versa, she said. She coordinated with Trump's Trump Organization assistant, Rhona Graff, on Trump's schedule, calendar and personal mail. She said that, at first, she and Graff spoke weekly, if not daily.
But there were also lots of checks. Westerhout testified that the business would FedEx checks to Keith Schiller, who'd come to the White House from the Trump Organization, and Schiller would give them to her to have Trump sign. Sometimes, there were invoices attached to the checks. This happened a couple of times a month, she estimated.
Not that he just signed the checks, mind you.
“I think I remember, maybe, a couple times,” Westerhout said, “him having a question about a check and then calling Allen Weisselberg or somebody else in the Trump Organization to ask for clarification.”
Trump’s businesses continued to make money during his presidency and, therefore, so did he. He would regularly decamp from the White House to a Trump Organization property, including ones where dues-paying members had the opportunity to influence executive actions. A couple of his properties alone generated millions in income from foreign interests.
Since he’s left office, questions about how his political and economic interests collide have only expanded. His son-in-law has received billions of dollars from foreign partners. He and the Trump Organization have been working with LIV Golf, backed by the Saudi Arabian government, in a deal the details of which remain undisclosed. If Donald Trump wins reelection, there is no reason to think that his administration would be any more differentiated from his now-more-complicated business.
When Dillon was outlining back in January 2017 how rigorous the barrier between Trump’s business and his presidency would be, she asserted that the president-elect had “directed that no communications of the Trump Organization, including social media accounts, will reference or be tied to President-elect Trump’s role as president of the United States or the office of the presidency.”
After he left office, however, Trump integrated the presidential seal into his activities — including parts of an LIV Golf tournament hosted at his club in New Jersey.
The Westerhout testimony made explicit what was already obvious: Trump’s pledge to set his business aside while he ran the country was never implemented. The two were intertwined and remain intertwined as he seeks reelection.
Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.
Eventually, as his candidacy flourished, people got around to asking what now seems like an obvious question: Well, what happens to the company if you win?
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During a debate in January 2016, after Trump was already the front-runner for the nomination, the subject was raised by Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. If elected, would he put his business in a blind trust as others had before him?
“If I become president,” Trump insisted, “I couldn’t care less about my company. It’s peanuts. I want to use that same up here” — he pointed at his head — “whatever it may be, to make America rich again and to make America great again.”
Bartiromo tried to clarify: So a blind trust?
Trump wasn’t sure about the structure, he said, but anticipated that he “would probably have my children run it with my executives and I wouldn’t ever be involved because I wouldn’t care about anything but our country, anything.”
A year later, he was poised to be inaugurated as president. He held a news conference, his first in months, to present how he would be separating his business from his new position.
The plan — handing over control of the company to his sons and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg — was outlined by attorney Sheri Dillon.
Follow Election 2024
“President-elect Trump wants there to be no doubt in the minds of the American public that he is completely isolating himself from his business interests,” Dillon said. “He instructed us to take all steps realistically possible to make it clear that he is not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit.”
ADVERTISING
“As president, I could run the Trump organization, great, great company, and I could run the company — the country,” Trump himself said. “I’d do a very good job, but I don’t want to do that.”
Or did he?
On Thursday, former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout was called to the stand in Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan. Westerhout was Trump's central point of interaction with the outside world during the first two years of his presidency — a role that, she testified, included frequent interactions with the Trump Organization.
Westerhout would regularly ask questions of Trump Organization employees and vice versa, she said. She coordinated with Trump's Trump Organization assistant, Rhona Graff, on Trump's schedule, calendar and personal mail. She said that, at first, she and Graff spoke weekly, if not daily.
But there were also lots of checks. Westerhout testified that the business would FedEx checks to Keith Schiller, who'd come to the White House from the Trump Organization, and Schiller would give them to her to have Trump sign. Sometimes, there were invoices attached to the checks. This happened a couple of times a month, she estimated.
Not that he just signed the checks, mind you.
“I think I remember, maybe, a couple times,” Westerhout said, “him having a question about a check and then calling Allen Weisselberg or somebody else in the Trump Organization to ask for clarification.”
Trump’s businesses continued to make money during his presidency and, therefore, so did he. He would regularly decamp from the White House to a Trump Organization property, including ones where dues-paying members had the opportunity to influence executive actions. A couple of his properties alone generated millions in income from foreign interests.
Since he’s left office, questions about how his political and economic interests collide have only expanded. His son-in-law has received billions of dollars from foreign partners. He and the Trump Organization have been working with LIV Golf, backed by the Saudi Arabian government, in a deal the details of which remain undisclosed. If Donald Trump wins reelection, there is no reason to think that his administration would be any more differentiated from his now-more-complicated business.
When Dillon was outlining back in January 2017 how rigorous the barrier between Trump’s business and his presidency would be, she asserted that the president-elect had “directed that no communications of the Trump Organization, including social media accounts, will reference or be tied to President-elect Trump’s role as president of the United States or the office of the presidency.”
After he left office, however, Trump integrated the presidential seal into his activities — including parts of an LIV Golf tournament hosted at his club in New Jersey.
The Westerhout testimony made explicit what was already obvious: Trump’s pledge to set his business aside while he ran the country was never implemented. The two were intertwined and remain intertwined as he seeks reelection.
