WATCHING CLOUDS in the West, I’m trying to figure out what an ordinary citizen of the United States can do to call attention to the likelihood that our country is heading into a national, perhaps an international, disaster unless the President-elect brings himself and his advisors into line with what the Constitution requires and what knowledgeable citizens know is appropriate preparation for his inauguration a few weeks from now.

First, Donald Trump has said that he is a businessman and that as a businessman, he owns or has business with several companies in our country and in other countries. He seems not to know that his business relationships must be changed now that he has been elected to serve as President of the United States.  We don’t know the details of his businesses and of his assets because he has declined to make public his tax returns as other candidates for President have done in other election years.  Other people who have been elected to the office have placed their assets in “blind trusts” before becoming President.  A blind trust would keep the beneficiaries of his assets from having knowledge of government activities that might work to the advantage of the President’s assets.  President Trump’s blind trust will obviously not be blind.  His decisions as President of the country will be made with those people in charge of his businesses knowing how the companies can take advantage of the President’s every decision.  Mr. Trump has said he will ignore what other Presidents have done and will expect the country to Trust him to keep his business and the country’s business completely separate from each other. To make the situation even worse, President-elect Trump has adult children who will not only run his businesses, but they are on his transition team with responsibility to select his Cabinet and staff his offices in the White House.  

The decisions he is making show that the President-elect is leaving himself and his family open to the charge that he will use his Presidency to benefit his family financially. Mr. Trump’s refusal to make the decision to release his tax returns and to completely separate his family and himself from his businesses will surely lead the country to a constitutional crisis.