In his first press conference since July of last year, Donald Trump stood next to a sizeable stack of papers and folders, claiming it was all the paperwork needed to transfer “complete and total” control of his companies and investments to his children Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr.
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He first made the promise in November, calling the Presidency a “far more important task.”
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Multiple spokespeople close to his campaign have reiterated that Trump would transfer control to his children. A failure to do so would engender a wholly unprecedented series of conflicts of interests; Trump maintains stakes in over 500 companies.
But a new report from ProPublica says that hasn’t happened yet. They reached out to officials in three states where over a dozen of Trump’s companies are established — Florida, Delaware and New York — to inquire about them. In New York and Delaware, officials say documents are logged once they’re received; Florida officials say it can take up to two business days.
ProPublica found that Trump has failed to divest from any of the businesses in any of the three states they investigated. (Read their report here.) They found that Trump has failed to resign or transfer ownership of a slew of businesses, including Trump Organization LLC, the holding company for his many businesses.
Additionally, the Trump Foundation, which admitted to making illegal donations to the campaign of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and is still under investigation in the state of New York, still lists Trump as an officer. ProPublica notes that while Trump promised to dissolve the foundation entirely, he is forbidden from doing so until the investigation by the New York Attorney General is complete. However, Trump may resign from the foundation at any time. After the donation controversy broke, Bondi was hired as a member of Trump’s transition team.
At the January press conference announcing Trump’s relinquishment of control, Trump and his team forbade members of the media from opening a single folder and inspecting the documents presented to them; some claimed this was a stunt and that the papers inside were blank.