Trump signed the law to require presidential ethics pledges. Now he is exempting himself from it
A bipartisan bill to boost transparency and make sure incoming presidents stick to an ethics plan was so uncontroversial that it passed the Senate by a voice vote in 2020. Donald Trump then signed it into law.
But now, after blowing past deadlines to adhere to the law after winning the White House a second time, Trump appears to have excluded himself from those same ethical guidelines.
Trump missed two months of deadlines before finally signing off on an agreement with President Joe Biden’s administration to begin the presidential transition process this week.
But the agreement does not appear to include the president-elect’s pledge to avoid conflicts of interest while in office, despite requirements under a renewed Presidential Transition Act he signed into law four years earlier. [Continue reading…]