The Ethical Problem with Trump’s Plan: Help me Hugh?

Last updated on: January 12, 2017 at 2:33 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

The Ethical Problem with Trump’s Plan: Help me Hugh? 2017-01-12T14:33:13-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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The Trump administration is stillborn if he does not change his plans for his business.

He is morally unfit for the office he holds, but a narrow majority of electors gave him the job. He is my President, but he is not one bit less the roue and misogynist than he was before the election. Yet all patriots pray for his success, because nobody wishes a constitutional crisis. Sadly, our President Elect has set up a plan that will produce endless appearances of evil that the Republic cannot afford.

As a member of the loyal opposition in the Republican Party, I want him to succeed because then our nation does well. As a Christian, I wish him to do better than he has done before because we must love even our enemies!

Mr. Trump is in the process of creating endless problems for himself, but more importantly for the Republic.

Good friends, like Hugh Hewitt, who have been critical of the President Elect in the past, have argued his plan for his business is ethical. Serious people like Hewitt should be respected, but I think they are making a critical error with the Trump plan.

Trump’s plan may pass Constitutional muster and it may be legal for all I know, but it is not ethical and the plan is not good for the Republic. The President Elect is asking us to believe by faith that he is just and no Republic can survive that attitude.

A good Republican says: “trust, but verify.”

The President Elect will not release his taxes. He will not remove himself as head of his business, a business whose chief value was his name by his own estimation. He will put his children in charge of that business and allegedly not discuss business with his children.

There is no plausible way to verify that he is complying with his own plan. The plan is, therefore, ethically useless. We will never know if foreign power X went to Trump business X for bad reasons. We will never know if Trump is profiting from domestic companies set up by foreign powers to do business with Trump enterprises. We are highly unlikely to be sure that Trump never talks to his own sons about the business that has been his entire life. If the President Elect only receives market rate for business, then increased volume due to this new position as President will enrich him!

In any case, we will never know. Doubts will multiply. Liberal partisans will pound away endlessly. Caesar once said his wife must be above reproach, but Trump has created a plan that is beneath reproach. Unless you just believe him, you cannot know he is doing the right thing. This is death in a Republic.

Is this plan Constitutional? My training does not make me competent to judge. Is this plan legal? I am no lawyer. Is it ethical? It stinks to high heaven and will end in unceasing accusations of graft that will embroil this administration in troubles.

Mr. Trump: we need a full time President who puts the needs of the country first. Put all your holdings in a blind trust.

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