It is hardly a month after the 2016 Presidential election, and already, President-elect Trump is showing plenty of warning signs that his administration will be one conflict of interest after another. This is a worrying sign to anybody interested in upholding high standards of business ethics, good governance, and regulatory compliance.
About a week after Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States, the Washington Post reported, some 100 foreign diplomats from around the world gathered at the Trump International Hotel in Washington to essentially entertain a sales pitch about the new property. They drank Trump-branded champagne and won raffle prizes that included free stays at other Trump properties. The foreign diplomats attended in an effort to build better ties with the new administration, but to anybody with even a passing interest in matters of business ethics and corruption, the event looked bad. More than one foreign official said that they hoped to stay at the hotel when visiting with the Trump administration so they could say they stayed at the President’s hotel chain, and not a competitor. That, my friends, is what we call a red flag. Maybe not a huge one, but it’s bright red, all the same. Anybody can see this for the conflict of interest that it is.
