Donald Trump has a global empire worth billions and he owes hundreds of millions of dollars to foreign lenders, including the government-owned Bank of China. He has business interests in at least 14 countries, many authoritarian regimes. Although past Presidents have divested themselves of their holding to avoid a conflict of interest, Trump won't. He also says that there is no law saying he has to set up a "blind trust." "The law's totally on my side," he said recently, "the president can't have a conflict of interest."
He's mostly right. There is nothing in the constitution to prevent him from putting his business interests ahead of the public interest except a clause that has no enforcement provisions. Ultimately only Congress can investigate him for violating this constitutional provision or hold him accountable for conflicts of interest related to his business interests. As long as the GOP is in power there, that will not happen. Trump as said that he could "perfectly run the government and my business from the oval office." It looks like he will.
But Trump is not satisfied with doing this. Inside sources tell this reporter that he wants to host another "The Apprentice" TV series. Most of the readers will recall that contestants are divided into teams. The leader wins a business competition win a prize of a one-year $250,000 starting contract to run one of Donald Trump's companies. Episodes ended with Trump eliminating the poorest contributor from the competition. The entire losing team remains in Trump's boardroom and is confronted with their loss. They are interrogated as to the reasons for their loss and which players contributed to it or failed at the task.
Trump is reportedly saying to his staffers that he misses embarrassing and humiliating the "losers" on the show. He allegedly told campaign manager Steve Bannon that being President of The United States and head of his global business empire was boring and that he wanted to be able to exercise more power over people. "The President has to share power with the congress and the courts. I'm not able to rule the country and I don't like that. My wonderful, beautiful company that I've created is fun but my time being Commander-In-Chief cuts down on my ability to make deals. It's frustrating," Trump supposedly told his campaign chief.
"I want to kick some ass and The Apprentice is the best way I can do it. I'll hold the show in the press room of the White House because it's big enough to have everybody. That will increase voter ratings," he reportedly told Bannon.
