Washington, D.C. — A comprehensive new project from the Center for American Progress illustrates President Donald Trump’s sweeping potential conflicts of interest that span the globe. While Trump has claimed that “the president can’t have a conflict of interest,” there is clear and compelling evidence that Trump may be using the presidency to maximize his profits and that foreign leaders may be giving the businesses of Trump and his family special treatment in exchange for favorable policies from the White House.
CAP’s interactive is supported by 25 detailed, country-specific columns that draw upon a rich variety of sources to not only examine the many conflicts of interest but also explain why these conflicts should matter to the American people in terms of jobs and security. The countries included in the project include Argentina, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Panama, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, St. Martin, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay.
“We seem to be seeing U.S. foreign policy auctioned off to enrich President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner,” said Carolyn Kenney, CAP policy analyst and co-author of the report. “It will be very hard for courts to ignore what they are seeing here.”
“Trump has been willing to start trade wars that will devastate American export jobs and to alienate key allies in the fight against terrorism,” said John Norris, CAP senior fellow and co-author of the report. “Again and again, it looks like this behavior is driven by his anger at business deals that have gone sour in places such as Mexico and Ireland. Trump’s conflicts are costing Americans dearly.”
Although Trump’s presidency is not even six months old, Trump has already made significant changes in U.S. policy abroad that directly benefit his bottom line and run counter to America’s long-term interests. Equally disturbingly, foreign governments seem to have realized that pumping money into Trump projects and properties makes for easy wins around the negotiating table. Trump reversed his position on the “one China” policy and was rewarded with long-sought trademarks for the Trump Organization the very next day by the Chinese government. Saudi Arabia, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported, spent $270,000 at the Trump Hotel in Washington as part of a lobbying effort to roll back legislation that allows family members of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudi government.
As the authors note, despite the breadth of this analysis, CAP’s project surely paints an incomplete picture of Trump’s conflicts because of the president’s broken promise to release his tax returns.
View “Trump’s Conflicts of Interest” by Carolyn Kenney and John Norris. Click here to view the country-specific columns.
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.