The Atlantic

The Perfectly Normal Ways Trump Can Enrich Himself as President

The president-elect's control over conventional economic policy could be worth more money than any conflict of interest.
Source: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

Along with the many unprecedented problems they create, Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest, as with so many other things, illustrate in striking fashion an existing flaw in American democracy. The problem is corruption: the potential for elected officials to take actions that benefit themselves, their family, their friends, or their business associates rather than the country as a whole.

Donald Trump’s real-estate, licensing, and entertainment empire throws the problem into stark relief. Foreign leaders could give Trump’s businesses abroad sweetheart deals in order to curry favor with the leader of the free world.

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