If it was not apparent by now, President Trump made it clear in his interview with The New York Times on Wednesday that it did not bother him if his family’s global moneymaking spree this past year raised concerns about whether his financial interests were influencing his administration’s official actions.
He said his family had restrained its international business activity during his first term, specifically to allay such worries, and got nothing but criticism.
“I prohibited them from doing business in my first term, and I got absolutely no credit for it,” he said. “I didn’t have to do that. And it’s really unfair to them.”
He added, “I found out that nobody cared, and I’m allowed to.”
Donald Trump Jr. has previously expressed similar sentiments, but the president addressed concerns about his family’s financial interests more fully than he has in the past. The White House has repeatedly said that Mr. Trump and his family never engage in conflicts of interests and that he puts the interest of Americans first.
Mr. Trump, in the interview, said that George Washington conducted business while president, and that while he did not do that, he saw no reason to limit his family’s endeavors. “I have a very honest family,” he said. He added that he had never accepted his presidential salary.
The president defended his support of the cryptocurrency industry, in which his family has become a major player. A number of companies with ties to the Trumps’ crypto enterprises have benefited from a rollback in enforcement of securities laws under his administration.
“I got a lot of votes because I backed crypto, and I got to like it,” Mr. Trump said. He said the reason he has pushed crypto so strongly, though, is to make the United States the industry’s global leader. “China wanted it, and one of us was going to get it,” he said.
The president’s comments come after a year in which his family has engaged in a profit-making campaign like none in modern American history. His eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have negotiated deals with foreign governments that have raised questions about the administration’s diplomatic priorities.
Foreign leaders have bent over backward to allow the Trump family to develop real estate projects. In Serbia, prosecutors last month filed corruption charges against former senior officials involved in approvals of one Trump family development, now canceled.
Sharon LaFraniere is an investigative reporter focusing on the Trump administration.
The post Trump Says He Has No Issue With His Family’s Foreign Business Deals appeared first on New York Times.
