Michael Hernandez
30 November 2016•Update: 01 December 2016
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday he would leave his business conglomerate to focus solely on the presidency.
“I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump tweeted using his campaign slogan.
“While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses,” he added.
The president-elect said, “legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations”, and that “The Presidency is a far more important task!”.
Specifics on his plans were not immediately apparent, but Trump said he and his family would hold a news conference Dec. 15 to formally announce the decision. Trump previously said he would leave his business interests to his children if he were elected president.
Previous presidents have placed their business interest into what is known as a blind trust, or a trust controlled by an independent party in which the owner does not know how the assets are being managed.
It is unclear how that would play out if Trump were to hand the reigns of his financial empire to his children.
The sprawling conglomerate includes golf courses, water and wine labels, a personal fragrance, and real estate developments across the globe.
