President-elect Donald Trump's new ethics plan to avoid business-related conflicts of interest is being slammed by experts as "meaningless."
The head of the nonpartisan Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, took especially sharp aim at Trump's announcement Wednesday that he wouldn't sell his business while serving as president, saying instead the company would only pursue U.S. deals and not foreign ones, Politico reported.
"I need to talk about ethics today because the plan the president has announced doesn't meet the standards that the best of his nominees are meeting and that every president in the past four decades has met," Shaub said at a news conference hosted by the Brookings Institution, Politico reported.
The arrangement doesn't address "the perception that government leaders would use their official positions for personal profit," he added.
"Stepping back from running his positions is meaningless from a conflict of interest perspective," Shaub said, Politico reported. "The presidency is a full-time job and he would have had to step back anyway."
Other ethics experts were also critical.
"Tragically, the Trump plan to deal with his business conflicts announced today falls short in every respect," Norm Eisen, a former top White House ethics lawyer for President Barack Obama, said at the news conference, according to Politico. "Mr. Trump’s ill-advised course will precipitate scandal and corruption."
Added Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen: "President-elect Donald Trump has failed his ethics test. Now, America will suffer the consequences," Politico reported.
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