November 15, 2016 – Donald Trump must urgently rethink his plan to allow his children to run his businesses. As drastic as it may seem to him, he should instead put all his conflict-generating assets in a true blind trust run by an independent trustee. The good of his own administration, and that of the country, demand nothing less.
As former ethics counsels to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, we dealt extensively with blind trusts in the White House. More than most, we recognize that asking Trump to put his vast holdings in one of these entities is no small thing. Making a total break with his complex U.S. and international interests would be a difficult and expensive sacrifice on his part.