Donald Trump Will Leave All His Businesses, Hand Over Control To His Sons Before Taking Office

In a series of late night tweets on Monday, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would hand over control of all his businesses to his sons and “leave” all his business interests behind before the presidential inauguration, The Business Insider reports. He also added that his companies will not make any new deals in the time he remains in office. In the series of tweets sent out shortly after 11 p.m., Trump wrote the following.

“Even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my businesses before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the Presidency. Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage them. No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office.”

We have also embedded all the tweets below.

Even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my busineses before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2016

Presidency. Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage them. No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2016

I will hold a press conference in the near future to discuss the business, Cabinet picks and all other topics of interest. Busy times!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2016

The series of tweets came just days after Trump rescheduled a press conference last Thursday where he was supposed to announce plans about his businesses. Trump’s transition team had announced back then that the conference has been rescheduled for next month. It remains unclear as to why Trump made these announcements now with the impending conference still pending. Another notable thing with these tweets is the lack of any reference to his daughter Ivanka Trump. Ivanka currently works for the Trump Organization. She is, however, expected to move away from business and serve in an advisory capacity to her father. He husband Jared, too, is expected to remain in close proximity to Trump during his presidency.

Meanwhile, according to a Washington Post report, these newest tweets by Trump do not give any indication that he plans to give up his ownership stake in several of his businesses that span the globe – which is the main bone of contention for most of his critics. However, his statement about not forging any new deals while he remains the President is something he had never indicated before. In fact, until now, Trump had only said that he would be merely giving up control of his businesses. Following his announcements, experts are now debating as to how his businesses will continue to operate without making any new deals for an extended period of time. Trump is yet to reveal how he plans to keep his business affairs transparent during his term as the U.S. President. Right now, the only way for the people to judge whether he kept his pledge is to depend on statements issued by Trump or his associates themselves.

Current U.S. laws are quite liberal when it comes to revealing details about the personal finances of the U.S. President. By law, the President is not required to disclose detailed information about his finances. In fact, once he is inaugurated as the U.S. President in January, Donald Trump would not be required to disclose his personal financial information to the state until May 2018. There is also no specific law that requires the U.S. President to remove themselves from any or all of their business interests. That said, there is no denying that the President-elect has been under a lot of pressure to move away from his businesses while he serves as the U.S. President. In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump had reiterated that he would not be actively involved with managing his companies once his presidential term begins.

“Essentially, I’m not going to have anything to do with the management. When I ran, everybody knew that I was a very big owner of real estate all over the world. I mean, I’m not going to have anything to do with the management of the company. I’m not going to be doing deals at all,” Trump said.

He had also tweeted about the same thing a few days ago, on November 30, when he wrote the following.

“While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses. Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task!”

[Featured Image by Richard Drew/AP Images]