Trump's Properties have Brought New Accusations of Conflicts of Interest

Sixty-four trade organizations, foreign governments, Republican candidates, and others have stayed or held events at properties related to US President Donald Trump in his first year of office, a nonpartisan political group said in a report released today by Reuters.

According to the Public Relations group, these cases represent "unprecedented conflicts of interest", as Trump heads the federal government and has not renounced property owned by him or bearing his name. Shortly before taking office last year, Trump said he would transfer control over his global business empire to his sons, Donald Jr and Erik, and would move his assets to a trust fund to help ensure that as a president he would not deliberately take actions that will personally benefit him/her.

Many state and private ethical organizations said Trump would have to go further by giving up assets that could cause conflicts of interest. According to the report, representatives of four foreign governments - Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - had held events at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Documents from the Federal Electoral Commission show that 24 organizations supporting congressional candidates have held events, mainly for fundraising, in Trump's properties. All of them like him were Republicans. Trump's properties also had events related to interest in the oil and mining industry. The report did not include data on the cost of the 64 groups in Trump's property.