In the category of “where have we seen this before,” President Trump promised via the White House press corps that he was going to release a detailed financial report before the 20/20 presidential election. It’s unknown exactly what he’s going to release, if anything, but he says it’s a detailed report of all of his personal holdings. There have been many questions about how Trump is profiting as president.
This might not be much of a promise even if he goes through with. He has to file financial disclosures anyway with the government ethics office. At least Trump seems to understand that there are many ethics questions that have been popping up over the past few months and even years about how much money the president is making while in office.
These types of questions were specifically asked in the past week after VP Mike Pence stayed in Doonbeg, Ireland, choosing to stay in one of Trump’s resorts. Another question is popped up in the past few days about whether a crew of Air Force personnel stayed at Trump’s properties in Scotland.
“At some point prior to the election, I’m going to be giving out a financial report of me, and it’ll be extremely complete,” he told reporters at the White House before leaving for a campaign rally in North Carolina.
Ethics Questions Being Raised
The big question being raised here is whether Trump is forcing the government to stay at his properties when they’re traveling abroad. He has many resorts, hotels, golf courses all over the world. He himself has stayed at these places when traveling up and down the East Coast, from Florida all the way up to New York.
Yet, these government entities and trump himself do not stay at his resorts for free. The taxpayers are paying for these stays, so that’s taxpayer money going directly into Trump’s pocket. But Trump says he doesn’t need the government staying at his hotels and he doesn’t need to make a profit from taxpayers. Hence, releasing his financial status in an attempt to quell any speculation.
“I’m going to give out my financial condition and you’ll be extremely shocked that the numbers are many, many times what you think,” Trump said. “I don’t need to have somebody take a room overnight at a hotel.”
President Trump decided not to release his tax returns in a rare move by an American president over the past few decades. He made promises during the 2016 campaign after questions were raised by Democrats about his ties to Russia. Many feel that Trump has way overestimated his worth and isn’t upfront about many questions that continue to swirl around his financial dealings.
