Last week, President-elect Donald Trump gave his first press
conference since last summer. In the hourlong affair, Trump lashed out
at CNN, denied rumors of risqué behavior in a Russian hotel, and
brought his lawyer, Sheri Dillon, to the podium to spend a significant
portion of the conference explaining why Trump is sufficiently
separating himself from his business interests. In fact, Trump and
Dillon argued that Trump was taking measures no other president has
ever taken to go above and beyond in the separation.The only problem with this argument is that, as any number of lawyers
and ethics experts will tell you, it just isn’t true.
It should come as no surprise that Trump’s efforts to distance
himself from his financial holdings falls short of sufficient given
that — in order to prove his point about the amount of work that had
been put into the separation — he brought props to his press
conference in the form of hundreds of manila folders filled with the
papers he signed to complete the deal. Trump said, “These papers are
just some of the many documents that I’ve signed turning over complete
and total control to my sons.”
Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St.
Louis,  and according to NPR, she believes that Trump failed to
address all of the ethical issues related to the decisions presented
last week.
Clark put it best when she told “All Things Considered,” “I think
what we saw this morning was essentially an exercise in smoke and
mirrors to give the appearance of doing something about the ethics
problems.”
“An exercise in smoke and mirrors” is not exactly a practice that the
American public would like to hear the president-elect getting
involved in.
The debate over Trump’s qualifications, level of composure,
knowledge, policy points, and Cabinet appointments collectively form
the only news topic for the past three months, a topic that is likely
to remain at the front and center for many months and years to come.
And although these are all important considerations, they pale in
comparison to the issues that will arise if Trump’s business interests
are handled unethically.
As such, the *Daily Iowan* Editorial Board believes that every
measure should be taken to separate Trump from his businesses and this
includes a major, if not full, divestiture from his business. While
this measure may seem extreme, it is in line with the opinion of
Walter Shaub Jr., the director of the Office of Government Ethics, who
last week said, “I don’t think divestiture is too high a price to pay
to be the president of the United States of America,” according to
NPR.
The Daily Iowan Editorial Board has been vocal in its disapproval
of Trump and of what he represents in a variety of ways. The reality
is, however, that despite discussion to the contrary and a large swath
of the country not wanting to believe it, there are very few reasons
or actions that could keep Trump from occupying the office of the
president.
It just so happens that one of those things remains unresolved —
according to most experts — and that is his connection to his
financial interests. If Trump truly separated himself from his
interests, there would have been no need for piles of paper sitting
beside the podium; it would have been undeniable without the prop.