President-elect Donald Trump's hotel ownerships could pose conflicts of interest with government agencies that he, as president, would oversee, according to The New York Times.
The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. operates out of a building owned by the federal government. Trump will appoint the head of the General Services Administration, which manages the property. Trump also will oversee the National Labor Relations Board, which would decide union disputes at any of the hotels that Trump owns, according to The Times.
Labor union disputes at Trump's International Hotel in Las Vegas are pending. Nevada's Culinary Workers Union Local 226 spokeswoman Bethany Khan asked in The Times, "Will he as president of the United States of America use the power he has to interfere — given that he has a financial interest in the outcome of these matters?"
The Trump Organization also has dealings with several foreign governments, which could violate a clause in the Constitution called the Emoluments Clause, The Times reported.
Washington lawyer Matthew T. Sanderson, a Republican, said Trump must deal with the potential conflicts.
"Yes, the American public elected him knowing he has these assets, but unless he deals with this properly, there will just be a steady trickle of these conflict-of-interest stories, and it could be a drag on his presidency," Sanderson said in The Times.
The president-elect's financial holdings fall under the umbrella of The Trump Organization, which includes more than a dozen hotels and golf courses, commercial real estate including Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street in New York, and marketing deals, according to The Times.
A Trump Organization spokeswoman said that the company was at work addressing the potential issues.
"We are in the process of vetting various structures with the goal of the immediate transfer of management at the Trump Organization and its portfolio of businesses to Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump along with a team of highly skilled executives."
The spokeswoman's statement said that the structure would follow all the required regulations, The Times reported.
The president must comply with a law that requires annual disclosures of his assets, but as president, Trump is exempt from a rule that prohibits government employees from actions that financially benefit themselves.
The president-elect has said he would turn his company's management over to his children, and avoid ethical issues that way. The Wall Street Journal reported that by federal law, only outsiders with no knowledge or concern with the property are allowed to manage such arrangements, not family members.
The president-elect has not released his tax returns, which would show information about required disclosures. However, Tax Analysts historian Joe Thorndike told the Wall Street Journal that he does not see a reason for Trump to release them. Thorndike said that releasing the returns "was always legally optional, but now it appears to be politically optional as well."
In The New Yorker, former Federal Election Commission general counsel Kenneth Gross stressed the importance of the potential issues.
"This is not something esoteric. This is an area that the incoming President must address, along with his other conflicts. This is a very unique problem for him," Gross said.
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