The Conflicts-of-Interest President

When Donald Trump starts work in the Oval Office in January, he will have more potential business and financial conflicts of interest than any other president in U.S. history. How transparently and directly he addresses those conflicts will provide an early look at what kind of a leader he plans to be, and what kind of an administration he plans to run.

The private company Trump controls and oversees, the Trump Organization, sits atop a lucrative array of real estate holdings, hotels, golf courses and licensing operations -- all of which threw off, perhaps, as much as $557 million in revenue last year. (Trump reported that figure to the Federal Election Commission earlier this year, but it’s never been publicly verified by an independent auditor. Trump could help clear up the matter by releasing his tax returns, but he’s broken with recent presidential tradition by declining to do so.)