What will happen to Trump’s businesses?

US president-elect Donald Trump, a billionaire real estate magnate, moved on Friday to extricate himself from his sprawling business empire. Here is how he plans to deal with conflict of interest charges once he assumes presidency - The Trump Organization will be placed into a blind trust to prevent conflict of interest when Donald Trump becomes president. But the plan, say experts, is impractical.

HIS BUSINESSES

• Has dabbled in everything from real estate to steak, casinos and beauty pageants.

• Plays executive role for 515 companies. Of these, 268 bear his last name.

• Trump Organization owns a portfolio of buildings, 15 hotels & 17 golf courses around the world.

• His real estate career of 45 years includes Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue (Manhattan), Trump Tower (Chicago), & Mar-a-Lago, a private club in Palm Beach, Florida.

• Trump also licenses his name to other developers

• Has deals or partners in South Korea, the Philippines, India, Brazil & the UK

• Has hotels in Turkey, Uruguay, the Philippines & South Korea, and golf courses in UAE, Ireland & Britain.

THE OTHER BUSINESS BIDS

• Trump-branded steaks still served in Trump restaurants.
• A Trump board game.
• Trump Airlines (defunct).
• His name on water, Israeli energy drinks & cologne.

POINTS OF CONFLICT

• A luxury hotel in Washington, blocks from the White House, leases its property from the US government, putting Trump on both sides of any landlord-tenant disputes.

• Trump’s licensing deals & diverse real estate holdings in numerous countries could benefit from foreign government subsidies or tax breaks.

• Conflicts of interest could stem from countries trying to influence policies by doing business with any of his companies or children

• The New York property mogul is yet to feature in New York’s top-10 lists of the city’s real estate players.

• Wall Street banks remain hesitant to deal with Trump, due to previous bankruptcies and litigious nature.

15 companies associated with Trump owe more than $270 million to banks

• His 500 entities includes companies with names like China Trademark LLC & DT Marks Qatar LLC.

• His daughter Ivanka has a line of fashion products, which, along with other Trump-branded items, are made in countries like China In his campaign, Trump has accused China of currency manipulation and threatened to put tariffs on its imports.

ONLY WAY OUT - The only unassailable solution, experts say, would be for Trump to sell off his businesses and place the proceeds in a blind trust.

• His ownership of the company will be placed in a blind trust that his three oldest children — Don, Ivanka & Eric.

• Ivanka would run the hotels, Donald Jr the golf properties and Eric the winery and new development projects.

• To avoid the appearance of trying to benefit from their father’s power, the family will refrain from forging deals with overseas partners or companies.

• The idea is “to just let the existing assets grow organically. But they’re not going to strike new deals or acquisitions”.

PROBLEMS WITH THIS

• A blind trust amounts to “window dressing”, say observers. Having his children run the company would still keep the business in the family.

• A blind trust, by definition, prevents the owner from knowing what the company owns or holds. But Trump built the organisation, he knows each asset inside and out.