Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[scion]

DON JR. PROMISES NOT TO DO ANYTHING CORRUPT WHILE SHILLING CONDOS IN INDIA

Nothing to see here, insists the president’s son.

BY BESS LEVIN FEBRUARY 19, 2018 4:17 PM
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/don-jr-promises-not-to-do-anything-corrupt-while-shilling-condos-in-india

After he was elected president, Donald Trump executed a series of legal maneuvers to ensure that his ethical responsibilities wouldn’t get in the way of his conflicts of interest. Instead of selling the Trump Organization, putting his assets in a blind trust, or handing control of the business to a neutral third party, Trump turned over day-to-day management to his eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric. Don’t worry, said Eric, shortly before the Inauguration: “There is kind of a clear separation of church and state that we maintain, and I am deadly serious about that exercise.” Two minutes later, he admitted that, actually, he would be reporting the company’s financials to his father quarterly. (“I talk to him a lot. We’re pretty inseparable.”) And so it goes with other elements of the “church and state” separation between Donald Trump and his family business. The Trump brothers also promised that they would initiate no new international projects during their father’s presidency, to limit the possibility of financial conflicts. But, technically, that doesn’t stop them from promoting projects that were already in development on November 8, 2016. Which is why, starting Tuesday, Donny Jr. will head to India for an “unofficial visit” that looks like an ethical nightmare.

Beginning Tuesday, the junior Trump will have a full schedule of meet-and-greets with investors and business leaders throughout India where the Trump family has real estate projects — Mumbai, the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon and the eastern city of Kolkata.

Indian newspapers have been running full-page, glossy advertisements hyping his arrival and the latest Trump Tower project under the headline: “Trump is here — Are You Invited?” The ads also invited home buyers to plunk down a booking fee (about $38,000) to “join Mr. Donald Trump Jr. for a conversation and dinner.” Public relations executives working with two local developers arranging the Trump dinner declined to give specifics about the event.

The potential ethical entanglements of the president’s son plugging condos across the Indian subcontinent are heightened by the fact that Trump Jr.—who, as far as we know, doesn’t know anything about foreign policy—will also give a speech on “Reshaping Indo- Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation” at a global business summit on Friday night. Incidentally, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also slated to speak at the summit. Perhaps Modi or his friends will be interested in a condo, too, since many of the actual units have yet to be sold. Would the prime minister’s family and friends get a discount on the “booking fee”?

Either way, the appearance of corruption is almost as bad as the real thing. “Trump’s company is literally selling access to the president’s son overseas,” Jordan Libowitz, the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told The Washington Post. “For many people wanting to impact American policy in the region, the cost of a condo is a small price to pay to lobby one of the people closest to the president, far away from watchful eyes.”

Don Jr.’s trip has got to be equally unsettling for the Indian government: After all, what’s the proper diplomatic response for the president’s son when he comes into town to pitch an incredible new real-estate opportunity? “The idea that the president’s son would be going and shilling the president’s brand at same time Donald Trump is president and is managing strategic and foreign relations with India—that is just bizarre,” Daniel S. Markey_, who worked at the State Department during George W. Bush administration, told The New York Times. Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor who ran for New York governor in 2014, was more blunt. “It looks bad, it smells bad, and it leaves an uncertainty in the faith of the American public about the diplomatic choices that the Trump administration makes regarding India.”

The Trump Organization, of course, has insisted that ethics scolds are getting their knickers in a twist over nothing. Noting that his official itinerary does not include any meetings with government officials, Don Jr. told the Times, “We certainly won’t get involved in that,” when asked if his company would attempt to extract incentives or concessions for the projects. “Not at all.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/don-jr-promises-not-to-do-anything-corrupt-while-shilling-condos-in-india