Today in “important legislation Republicans will block,” a group of Senate Democrats will introduce a bill that would force Donald Trump to disclose his business interests and divest from them before taking office. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) will introduce the bill in January, because:
"Unless he takes steps to address these conflicts, President-elect Trump will be in violation of the Constitution on 'Day One' of his presidency," the Democrats wrote. "For decades, U.S. presidents have addressed concerns regarding foreign and domestic conflicts of interest by divesting their financial interests and placing them in a true blind trust or the equivalent. The bill codifies this longstanding practice." [...]
"The American people deserve to know that the President of the United States is working to do what's best for the country - not using his office to do what's best for himself and his businesses," Warren said. "The only way for President-elect Trump to truly eliminate conflicts-of-interest is to divest his financial interests and place them in a blind trust. This has been the standard for previous presidents, and our bill makes clear the continuing expectation that President-elect Trump do the same."
The legislation would also apply to Mike Pence and the spouses and children of both Trump and Pence. It would force them to either sell assets or put them in a blind trust—a real one, not the blatant fakery Trump has favored. And while Senate Republicans won’t let it go anywhere, Democrats have to try this stuff, both to draw attention to the issues now and to get Republicans on the record in favor of Trump being able to use the presidency for personal profit, so that when Trump has a pay-to-play scandal that’s too big to ignore, Republicans can’t pretend they weren’t okay with it.