When Trump continues to strew new chaos every day, it’s hard to pretend it’s an accident.
Today’s designated chaos is Trump defending his daughter’s financial welfare:
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
Poor girl. Trump re-tweeted it using the official POTUS account.
The press continues to waffle about this ‘possibly’ being a conflict of interest, many saying they cannot say if it’s a conflict without knowing Trump’s finances.
Liars. Of course his interests are in conflict. Trump is her father, and he’s President, and they are different roles. Yes, he also may have his own financial conflicts, which would be serious, but that’s a separate question. We already know that Ivanka’s financial interests and the US President’s interests aren’t the same. For news services to pretend to be uncertain is cowardice.
And every President has conflicts of interest like this. The real question isn’t if he has them, but whether he acts on those conflicts. That’s the important question here, but it would be hard to argue that Trump isn’t using the powers of the President, both indirectly and directly, to defend his daughter’s financial interests.
Update (Feb. 9, 2017) — Today, Kellyanne Conway managed to make a full-throated advertisement for Ivanka Trump’s product line. “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff!” Yes, it’s explicitly illegal for a government employee to advertise or recommend things for people to buy. I guess that answers the question of how strongly the administration worries about conflicts of interest.
