Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), with a series of Democratic co-sponsors in her legislative chamber, has introduced a new bill meant to stop the kinds of corruption seen with Trump from unfolding in future presidential administrations, including another term for Donald.
In short, the bill — known as the Presidential Conflicts of Interest Act of 2023 — would address the financial conflicts of interest threatened by holdings like those found in Trump’s finances. In his decades of business, he has repeatedly interacted with foreign figures and entities, including governments. Even just lately, his family business has been receiving what apparently amounts to millions of dollars originating largely if not entirely from a Saudi Arabian fund controlled by an infamous crown prince in that country. (The payments are tied to Trump’s hosting of events for LIV Golf, a new league.) While in office, the trend continued, with foreign governmental delegations patronizing, for instance, his D.C. hotel, which has since shuttered.
Warren’s legislation, if enacted, would demand that presidents and vice presidents “disclose and divest any potential financial conflicts of interest,” as a press release explained. Also covered would be members of these public figures’ immediate families. They would need “to divest all interests that create financial conflicts of interest by placing those assets in a true blind trust, which would be managed by an independent trustee who would oversee the sale of assets and place the proceeds in conflict-free holdings,” according to that same release. And the bill itself specifically incorporates concern about foreign financial ties, defining financial ties it targets to include any “present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state (including from an entity owned or controlled by a foreign government), within the meaning of article I, section 9 of the Constitution of the United States.”
