Press Conference? What Press Conference Was That?

Quel surprise: presser cancelled, until "sometime next month". Instead of bothering with the "blind trust" pretense, "Transition officials say Trump focused on cabinet selections," says Bloomberg.

In a series of tweets late Monday night, Trump said he would make no new business deals during his time in the White House. The tweets came on the same day Bloomberg first reported he was postponing a Dec. 15 news conference to announce his business plan. He will instead make an announcement sometime next month before his inauguration, according to transition officials familiar with the deliberations.

Sure, he will. But no one can make him, and it's all above board, anyway.

"Even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my busineses before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the Presidency," Trump said on Twitter Monday night. "Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage them. No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office."

Last week, Josh Marshall suggested, "Maybe he can't divest because he's too underwater to do so or more likely he's too dependent on current and expanding cash flow to divest or even turn the reins over to someone else."

Marshall adds here, "As a condition of borrowing he may have agreed not to divest himself of certain properties." A corporate lawyer TPM reader says–

It may be that the sweet spot for Trump to sell would be during the first year of his administration, when the values of his businesses have inflated due to some combination of his policies and the association with him, and a buyer could reasonably benefit from the association with him for at least three years. He could pass it off as trying to put the conflict behind him. Look for the buyer to get a right to continue to use his name -- and perhaps other rights/promises that we'll never know about. I wouldn't expect all of the deal documents to be made public.