President-elect Donald Trump's extensive foreign business dealings have have some critics worried Trump Organization business ties could affect America's reaction to global events, The New York Times reported.
Potential conflicts loom for Trump's companies in at least 20 countries, according to a Times analysis of Trump's campaign financial disclosures.
"It is uncharted territory, really in the history of the republic, as we have never had a president with such an empire both in the United States and overseas," Michael Green, who served on the National Security Council in the administration of George W. Bush, as well as at the Defense Department, told the Times.
In a written statement to the Times, Trump's spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said the president-elect and his family will address any issues related to his financial holdings.
"Vetting of various structures and immediate transfer of the business remains a top priority for both President-elect Trump, his adult children and his executives," she told the Times.
The Times reported the complications that could create "a running source of controversy" for Trump during his administration are in:
- Brazil, where Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro is part of an investigation by a federal prosecutor who is examining whether illicit commissions and bribes resulted in apparent favoritism by two pension funds that invested in the project.
- India, where Trump real estate projects are being built through companies with family ties to Indias most important political party.
- Ireland and Scotland, where executives from Trump's golf courses have had separate battles with local officials, including one over Trump Organization plans to build a controversial flood-prevention sea wall at the course on the Irish coast.
- Turkey, where officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded Trump's name be removed from Trump Towers in Istanbul after he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States – and then stopped after Trump came to the defense of Erdogan's crackdown on dissidents after a failed coup.
- The Philippines, where developer Jose E.B. Antonio – newly named a special envoy to the United States by President Rodrigo Duterte – is a partner with Trump on a $150 million tower in Manila's financial district and has other ventures in the works, including Trump-branded resorts in the Philippines.