President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to distance himself — but not divest — from his family real estate business largely mirrors that which the family business made eight years ago, with one large exception.
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In the days before his first stint in the White House, Trump pledged that his companies, including The Trump Organization, wouldn't undertake new deals with foreign entities.
Ten days before his second inauguration, Trump announced that he would only restrict his company from doing deals over the next four years with foreign governments. That opens the door for more development deals with private companies overseas, The New York Times reports.
The Trump Org.'s ethics agreement, released by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan Friday, also says that William Burck, a prominent ethics lawyer at Quinn Emanual, has been appointed as the company's outside counsel.
Burck previously served as a federal prosecutor and White House lawyer during the Bush administration.
In his role, Burck will review transactions worth more than $10M or involving local, state or federal governments. That includes loans and refinancings in addition to property trades. Leases over 40K SF will also be reviewed, according to the agreement.
Like his first term, Trump will also be unable to access detailed financial information about his companies and his assets will be kept in a trust. His investments will be managed by his children or outside financial institutions, and he pledged to have no involvement in the decisions made concerning those investments.
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The Trump Org. is run by his two sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. It is also planning a 1,500-unit condo development at the site of the Trump National Doral golf course in Miami.
“We are going above and beyond,” Eric Trump told the Times in an interview.
Some critics contend that any profits or benefits from foreign governments, not just new ones, are a violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prevents sitting presidents from accepting payments or making profits from foreign governments. The Trump Org. has projects coming soon in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam, according to its website.
“The money flow has to stop on Jan. 20,” Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer under George Bush and a longtime Trump critic, told the Times.
Under the agreement, the business said it would donate profits from smaller transactions with foreign officials, such as stays at Trump hotels, to the U.S. Treasury to avoid conflicts of interest.
U.S. government officials and Secret Service agents will receive discount rates to stay at Trump-owned properties to protect the first family, according to the pledge. Trump received more than $1.8M in payments from the Secret Service for stays at his U.S. properties from 2016 to 2021, and charged the agency above the federally mandated maximum for hotel accommodations, according to a 2022 congressional report.
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