Trust documents show Trump retains close ties to his businesses
Documents obtained by The New York Times show President Trump's business empire, held in a trust managed by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, can be put back under the president's direct control "at any time" of his choosing. The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust is linked to President Trump's Social Security number alone for federal tax purposes, and its assets are held for his "exclusive benefit."
Given these terms, it is unclear whether the Trump Organization will be able to retain occupancy on the Old Post Office building in Washington, the site of the latest Trump hotel, because the lease prohibits the building's rental by an elected official.
Trump has been urged to sell his namesake businesses and place the proceeds in a blind trust, an option he has refused to pursue, citing his lack of legal obligation. "After being forced to apologize for its bad and inaccurate coverage of me after winning the election, the FAKE NEWS @nytimes is still lost!" he tweeted Saturday morning after the Times article published.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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