A federal ethics office is sarcastically "congratulating" Trump over his conflict-of-interest plan
Updated by Libby Nelson@libbyanelson Nov 30, 2016, 3:10pm EST
It’s probably been a tough month for the Office of Government Ethics, a federal agency that since 1978 has been devoted to preventing conflicts of interests within the executive branch. After all, the new head of the executive branch — President-elect Donald Trump — is essentially a massive walking conflict of interest, with his business interests all over the world presenting unprecedented complications and opportunities for corruption.
Trump tweeted this morning that he’ll announce his plan to step away from his businesses on December 15, at a press conference with his children. He’s likely to announce he’s handing control of the Trump Organization to them, something he’s said before during the campaign, which would not eliminate conflicts of interest. To do that, Trump would have to sell his businesses and put the proceeds into a blind trust, where he doesn’t know what assets he holds or how his policies might affect his personal wealth.
Trump has given no indication that selling his businesses is part of the plan. But the official Twitter account of the Office of Government Ethics responded to Trump by congratulating him for something he didn’t say he’d do — divest completely.
The series of tweets continued until it was clear that this was tongue-in-cheek, or trolling, or maybe a desperate attempt at positive reinforcement. Either the author was trying to bait Trump into admitting he’s not divesting or was hoping that enough public praise would force him to actually do it. (The tweets also suggest there may have been a fraught meeting or two between the agency and Trump’s lawyers.)
.. links, tweets and more .. http://www.vox.com/2016/11/30/13797226/trump-conflict-of-interest-office-government-ethics-tweets
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
