Thread by @DanAlexander21

1/ In a Trump Tower press conference, held nine days before he took office, Donald Trump described his plan to separate his business from his presidency. Over the last few years, the key pillars of that plan have crumbled. Let’s go through them one-by-one. c-span.org/video/?421482-…

2/ Promise 1 of Trump’s ethics plan: “No new foreign deals will be made whatsoever during the duration of President Trump’s presidency,” his attorney said. Trump did at least one new foreign deal anyway.

(See the promise at 31:57 of the video below.)
c-span.org/video/?421482-…

3/ We know that the president did new a new foreign deal in office because he himself admitted it—on a financial disclosure report filed with federal ethics officials. You can see here that he sold $3.2M of land in the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29, 2018. extapps2.oge.gov/201/Presiden.n…

4/ Promise 2 of Trump’s ethics plan: He said he wasn’t going to talk about the business with his sons, Eric and Don Jr., who he put in charge of day-to-day operations. Doesn’t look like he kept that promise either.

(See promise 25:00 into the video.)
c-span.org/video/?421482-…

5/ Contradicting his father, Eric Trump later told me that he did in fact plan to update his dad on the business. “Yeah, on the bottom line, profitability reports and stuff like that. But you know, that’s about it.” forbes.com/sites/danalexa…

6/ Promise 3 of Trump’s ethics plan: Trump’s team suggested he would donate all profits from foreign dignitaries to the U.S. Treasury, to blunt criticism that he was violating the emoluments clause of the constitution. Doesn’t look like that happened.

7/ In ’17-’18, the Trump Org reportedly gave the US Treasury $343K, supposedly its profits from foreign governments. But an analysis of just one deal shows that the president got about three times that amount from China alone. See the math in this thread.

https://twitter.com/DanAlexander21/status/1306999815688118273

8/ Promise 4 of the president’s ethics plan: Trump’s attorney said an ethics advisor would review all new transactions to guard against potential conflicts of interest. That did not happen.

(See the promise below, at the 32:25 mark): c-span.org/video/?421482-…

9/ Despite what one Trump attorney claimed, another Trump lawyer told me no one reviewed deals in buildings where Trump holds a minority stake, like 1290 Ave of the Americas and 555 Calif St—Trump’s 2 most valuable properties. See documents in this thread.

https://twitter.com/DanAlexander21/status/1307766296168271873

10/ Over the last four years, the pillars of President Trump’s ethics plan have collapsed one after the other. Promises made, promises broken.

To learn more, please check out “White House, Inc.: How Donald Trump Turned the Presidency into a Business.” penguinrandomhouse.com/books/623950/w…