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From left to right: Eric, Ivanka, and Donald Trump Jr. with Mike Pence and Donald Trump at this morning's press conference.

By Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images.

Flanked by a dozen American flags and gripping a lectern, Donald Trump began his first press conference in 168 days, one meant to address the myriad conflicts of interest that he could face as president, by bragging about how he had recently turned down an opportunity to make billions of dollars in the Middle East. Over the weekend, I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very amazing guy, the president-elect told reporters, who had assembled at Trump Tower to hear how the president-elect plans to resolve his sprawling financial interests in the Trump Organization, and to ask him questions after he unexpectedly cancelled a previous press conference on the subject last month.

President-elect Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built.

What they received instead, however, was a largely defensive and digressive explanation of Trumps profound disinterest in the topic. Trump discussed the pharmaceutical industry and the auto business, but he mainly focused on various obfuscations. Two-billion dollars to do a number of deals, he continued. I turned it down. I didnt have to turn it down. . . . I have no conflict-of-interest provision as president. I could actually run my business and run government at the same time. I can run the Trump Organizationa great, great companyand run the country. Id do a great job.

That is not, in fact, what Trump plans to do. His solution, instead, involves handing the management of his business over to his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who were standing to his right onstage, along with their sister Ivanka, who will step down from the Trump Organization to move her family to Washington. Her husband, Jared Kushner, will serve in the West Wing as senior adviser to the president, flouting federal anti-nepotism laws that Kushners lawyers argue do not apply to the White House.

Trump himself will not divest his financial interest in his company, claiming that he will pay it no mind as president. [My two sons] are going to be running it in a very professional manner. They are not going to discuss it with me, he said. Later in the presser, he said that when his time in office is over, he hopes to discover that his sons did a good job. And if they dont, he will give them his signature reality-television line: Youre fired. He pointed to a stack of manila folders set up on a table just to his sidesix sloppily arranged files and papers that allegedly contained hundreds of documents he had signed in order to turn over control of his company and avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest.

After only about 20 minutes behind the microphone and only several questions from the press, Trump brought up Sheri Dillon, a tax attorney who has helped the president-elect determine how to comply with ethics standards, to read a statement. He directed me to design a structure for his business empire that would completely isolate him from the management of the company, said Dillon, who also helped build protections that would assure the American people that Trump is not exploiting the office of the presidency.

That structure includes Trump stepping away from all management roles within the Trump Organization. Dillon stated that the Trump Organization will not make any foreign deals for the duration of his administration, but his sons will be able to make deals domestically. An appointed ethics adviser, who was not named, will be required to sign off on all new deals that his sons choose to make before they go forward. She also stated that Trump has canceled all pending dealsabout 30 or soand gotten rid of his stock holdings. In addition, she explained that Trump will not talk to his sons about the business, and the only information he will receive on the health of the business will be generalized reports on profits and losses and what he reads in newspapers and sees on television. The Trump Organizations social-media accounts will also be completely separate from Trump himself and the office of the president.

Trump will still hold on to illiquid business assets, including his golf clubs, resorts, hotels, and deals that bear his name, presumably including Trump Water, Trump wine, and Trump Tower. President-elect Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built, Dillon said. As for the possibility of setting up a blind trusta suggestion ethics experts have hailed as critical for removing the appearance of conflictsshe said that is not feasible. President Trump cant un-know that he own Trump Tower.

As for the Emoluments Clause, a portion of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits a president from accepting gifts, presents, and financial backing from foreign governments or entities, Trumps lawyer argued that it has never been interpreted to apply to fair-value exchanges. In her reading of the law, this means that foreign-government officials staying at a Trump-owned hotel in order to curry the favor of the president or his children would not violate the Constitution because paying your hotel bill would be . . . a value-to-value exchange. Still, she said, Trump will donate foreign-government payments made to his hotels to the U.S. Treasury so that the American people will benefit.

The plan, as is, does little to substantively tame the ethical violations that could set fire to the office of the presidency once Trump takes office. He still stands to financially benefit from his businesses. His sons and daughter will also still stand to benefit. To suggest that his children, whose opinions he valued enough to place on his White House transition team, will not discuss his business with him at all is tenuous at best, and also requires the American people to take the family at their word that, in private, they will not discuss the family business. As for the ethics adviser, it is unclear who this individual would be, what their qualifications are, and how the public will know that this person remains independent.

While the Trump Organization will not be making foreign deals under the new structure outlined Wednesday, the domestic deals it will continue to pursue remain problematic. It is not hard to see how developers could make deals with the Trump family in order to gain access, court, or get in the good graces of the president. The incentive to patronize and conduct favorable dealings with Trump properties will remain as strong and, on its face, as ethically problematic as ever.

If anything, it appears that Trumps plan to have his businesses donate their profits from representatives of foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury makes the Emoluments issue more complicated and troublesome. This interpretation of the law is a narrow one, certainly. And because one Trump lawyer reads it as such does not mean that the rest of the U.S. government and courts will interpret it the same way. (Dillon did not say whether the plan had been presented to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, or whether the agency had given its approval.)

The plan does little to address most of the more worrying conflicts of interest that threaten to undermine the incoming Trump administration. It remains unclear how Trump will handle the lease for his newly built Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., which is leased from the Government Services Administration. The lease states that it cant be held by an elected official. But this decision is to be determined by the head of the G.S.A., an individual whom Trump will appoint once in office. Other Trump appointees, too, will be asked to make critical decisions affecting Trump businesses. The attorney general put forth by Trump will be in charge of investigations into Deutsche Bank, an institution to which Trump is $300 million in debt. The head of the I.R.S., also a Trump appointee, will be in charge of an ongoing audit into his tax returns, which he has still not released.

The tax returns, Trump said in the press conference on Wednesday, dont matter to the American public. I dont think they care, he said. I won. I became president. As of now, it hasnt yet mattered to the American electorateat least the 46.1 percent who voted for himnor have his supporters called on him to account for the web of opaque business ties that will continue to line his pockets in office. If it did, perhaps he would have actually taken steps to address them.

Is this an endearing moment of Donald squeezing Erics cheeks, or Donald checking to see if his thoroughbred sons teeth are healthy?

Tiffany, Donald, and Donald junior at Donalds 50th birthday party.

Young Eric attends the U.S. Open in 1991, making one of the few public appearances without shellacked hair.

A 10-year-old Eric is not as camera-ready as his mother Ivana. Hell get there one day.

Don Jr., 38, and Barron, 10, share an inter-generational fist-bump at the Republican National Convention.

Eric and Don Jr., for once not wearing slicked-back hair, pay their respects to their dear father.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. at the Old Post Office, now a Trump hotel, Washington, D.C., July 2014.

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Is this an endearing moment of Donald squeezing Erics cheeks, or Donald checking to see if his thoroughbred sons teeth are healthy?

by Ron Galella/WireImage.

Tiffany, Donald, and Donald junior at Donalds 50th birthday party.

BY RON GALELLA/WIREIMAGE.

Young Eric attends the U.S. Open in 1991, making one of the few public appearances without shellacked hair.

by Ron Galella/WireImage.

A 10-year-old Eric is not as camera-ready as his mother Ivana. Hell get there one day.

by Ron Galella/WireImage.

As Ivanka practices looking gorgeous at her fathers 50th birthday, a 12-year-old Eric appears displeased at his choice of tie.

by Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images.

Eric and Donald at a basketball game in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 2007.

BY JAMES DEVANEY/WIREIMAGE.

Don junior in Briarcliff Manor, New York, 2014.

BY BOBBY BANK/WIREIMAGE.

A 23-year-old Eric attempts to smile. Hell get there one day.

by M. Von Holden/WireImage.

Donald disapproved of Don Jr. proposing to model Vanessa Haydon using an engagement ring provided by a New Jersey jeweler who wanted publicity. You have a name thats hot as a pistol, said Trump, a man who put said name on everything from steaks to playing cards.

by Dave Allocca/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock.

It is unknown whether Eric Trump eventually killed this animal for sport.

by Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images.

Don Jr., and baby Barron at the unveiling of their fathers star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Barron is either throwing his fists in the air in celebration of his fathers accomplishments, or is waving for help.

by Hubert Boesl/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images.

We presume that this is Don Jr. impersonating his sister Ivanka at the Eric Trump Golf Tournament in 2014.

by Bobby Bank/WireImage.

A 9-year-old Barron already has his fathers eyes and princely smirk.

by Debra L Rothenberg/FilmMagic.

At a campaign event in Las Vegas, December 2015.

FROM VISIONS OF AMERICA/UIG/GETTY IMAGES.

Don Jr., 38, and Barron, 10, share an inter-generational fist-bump at the Republican National Convention.

By Carlo Allegri/REUTERS.

Eric and Don Jr., for once not wearing slicked-back hair, pay their respects to their dear father.

by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. at the Old Post Office, now a Trump hotel, Washington, D.C., July 2014.

BY PAUL MORIGI/WIREIMAGE.

Link:
Donald Trumps Plan to Keep His Business Is a National ...