Sun-Times Editorial Board 12.27.16 

Two Trump family charities are shutting down or going into hibernation, which could be a blow to at least one favored recipient — the Trump family.

But Donald Trump’s presidency is sure to be hammered by accusations of financial conflicts of interest all the same unless the president-elect takes two further steps. Trump must agree to the appointment of an independent trustee to oversee his global business empire. Handing the business over to his children creates no ethical buffer at all. And Trump should, finally, release his tax returns. Until he does, nobody can be sure how he might personally gain from his every action as president — in negotiating trade deals, changing the tax code, approving billion-dollar government contracts or even declaring war.

In a statement on Saturday, Trump announced in his familiar grandiose style that he is shutting down his charitable foundation. He bragged of the “enormous good works” his charity has done for veterans, law enforcement and children. But he failed to note that it is being investigated for fraud, for good reason, by the New York attorney general’s office.

A string of investigative news stories have documented that Trump donated relatively little money to his own charity, that it was mostly a pass-through for other people’s money (though he took the public credit for every dime given out), that it was used for illegal political purposes, and that he treated it like a personal piggy bank to pay legal bills and settlements. In one classic case, Trump’s charitable foundation paid $158,000 to settle a complaint by a man who had scored a hole-in-one during an event at one of Trump’s golf courses. The man claimed he had been promised a $1 million prize.

On Monday, Trump tweeted that he had given “millions of dollars” to his foundation, which is correct as far as that goes. But Trump had given nothing to the charity since 2008, reports the Washington Post. And though his presidential campaign once claimed he had given $102 million to charity from 2009 to 2014, public records show he has given less than $5 million in the last 25 years. If we accept Trump at his word that he is worth in excess of $10 billion, the New Yorker points out, then Trump’s charitable contributions come to about 0.05 percent of his fortune.

Also pulling back from the charity business is Trump’s son Eric. He said last week he will stop directly soliciting money for the Eric Trump Foundation because this could create an ethical “quagmire” once his father is sworn into office. Some donors might try to use him to gain access to his father.

But, here again, a Trump managed to exaggerate the size of his charity and overlook its ethical lapses. The foundation, which the Associated Press reports is worth considerably less than what Eric has claimed, has been roundly ridiculed for setting up an online auction — since cancelled — for “Coffee with Ivanka.” According to an AP investigation published Friday, the Eric Trump Foundation repeatedly paid for goods and services at one of Donald Trump’s private golf clubs and to “charities linked to the Trumps.” In apparent violation of federal law, the foundation did business with companies run by the foundation’s own board members.

Eric Trump says he won’t hit people up for money for charity anymore, which is a relief. When a president’s son holds out his palm, somebody is sure to grease it. But a Trump White House remains enormously vulnerable to conflicts of interest, and the president-elect sounds unconcerned.

After Eric announced he no longer will solicit charitable donations, his father tweeted out: “Wrong answer!”

Typical of Trump, he offered no better answer.

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