PR effort? Questions surround Trump’s hotel profits pledge
WASHINGTON — It’s a public relations win for the president-elect: Donald Trump’s company says it will donate profits from any foreign governments that use his hotels. In practice, however, the public may never know if any money changes hands.
Trump says he is making the move to avoid the appearance that foreign governments can curry favour with him by using his hotels — including one that just opened a short walk from the White House.
“This way, it is the American people who will profit,” said Sheri Dillion, a lawyer working with the Trump Organization, as she outlined Trump’s plan for his global business empire while he’s president. The hotel-profits money would be sent to the U.S. Treasury.
Yet the unusual arrangement left many ethics experts with questions about how it would be implemented, disclosed and enforced. Several panned the idea as an unenforceable PR move.