historically, presidential candidates have pledged to put their assets into a blind trust if they were to win the white house. | ap photo by louis nelson 11/30/16 02:25 pm est updated 11/30/16 03:35 pm est the federal office of government ethics offered its congratulations to president-elect donald trump wednesday afternoon for his announcement that he will be ceding control of his business empire as president. the president-elect made the announcement wednesday morning on twitter, telling his followers, <u+201c>i will be holding a major news conference in new york city with my children on december 15 to discuss the fact that i will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to make america great again!<u+201d> story continued below after cryptically posting and then deleting tweets directed at trump earlier in the day, the oge sent a flurry of posts praising the president-elect for his <u+201c>divestiture<u+201d> from his business holdings. but trump did not say anything about divesting in his tuesday morning announcement, and previously pledged only to give control of his companies to his three eldest children, not to remove his financial interests in them. <u+201c>. @ realdonaldtrump we can't repeat enough how good this total divestiture will be,<u+201d> the oge posted to its verified twitter account, launching the string of tweets. <u+201c>. @ realdonaldtrump brilliant! divestiture is good for you, very good for america!<u+201d> in some posts, the oge seemed to mimic trump<u+2019>s staccato style on twitter, writing <u+201c>. @ realdonaldtrump oge is delighted that you've decided to divest your businesses. right decision!<u+201d> and <u+201c>. @ realdonaldtrump bravo! only way to resolve these conflicts of interest is to divest . good call!<u+201d> by louis nelson and darren samuelsohn other posts published by oge say that the office has had contact with trump<u+2019>s lawyers and that it had informed them that <u+201c>divestiture is the way to resolve these conflicts.<u+201d> in another post, the oge wrote: <u+201c>[w]e told your counsel we'd sing your praises if you divested, we meant it.<u+201d> trump<u+2019>s legal team did not immediately respond to questions about any communication it has had with the oge. historically, presidential candidates have pledged to put their assets into a blind trust if they were to win the white house, a threshold trump would not meet by simply handing over control of his businesses to his children. since his surprise victory on election day, the trump children who would take control of his companies have taken on leadership roles on his transition team and have sat in on phone calls and meetings with world leaders. in a statement released after the posts went public on the oge<u+2019>s twitter account, a spokesman clarified that the office in fact remains unaware of the details of trump<u+2019>s plans but nonetheless <u+201c>applauds<u+201d> his intentions. it urged him to divest from his business empire, differentiating from the twitter posts, which suggested trump has already made such a decision. <u+201c>like everyone else, we were excited this morning to read the president-elect<u+2019>s twitter feed indicating that he wants to be free of conflicts of interest,<u+201d> oge spokesman seth jaffe said. <u+201c>oge applauds that goal, which is consistent with an opinion oge issued in 1983. divestiture resolves conflicts of interest in a way that transferring control does not. we don<u+2019>t know the details of their plan, but we are willing and eager to help them with it.<u+201d> jaffe later clarified that oge's tweets were responding only to trump's public comments, "not based on any information about the president-elect<u+2019>s plans beyond what was shared on his twitter feed." he added: "oge is non-partisan and does not endorse any individual." by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz by jack shafer
obama ethics office congratulates trump in bizarre mini-tweetstorm - politico
louis nelson louis nelson darren samuelsohn jack shafer