The Trump Organization, Donald Trump’s family company, will have a “very big wall” separating its business from the US government, Eric Trump, the president-elect’s son, said in an interview with Reuters in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
The bulk of the Trump Organization’s business is in the United States, although it has significant interests abroad, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
During his first term, Donald Trump retained ownership of the Trump Organization, but placed control of the sprawling business empire in the hands of his sons Eric and Donald Jr.
“Obviously there’s going to be a very big wall between anything to do with our company and anything to do with the government,” Eric Trump told Reuters at a Bitcoin conference.
“I take these obligations very seriously. I did it the first time, and I will do it the second time, and, you know, I will be very morally smart, very responsible, as we have done.”
The Trump Organization has a number of international branded projects in development including in Jeddah and Dubai, and announced new projects in the Saudi capital on Monday.
Eric Trump said the Trump Organization will continue to grow over the next four years when Donald Trump takes office, but is unlikely to make direct business deals with governments, adding: “I think that will probably be a struggle.”
He said that “the best legal teams in the world” would sign off on the company’s deals to avoid conflicts of interest.
“There’s a way to do both, and there’s a way to do both responsibly. And I’m clearly committed to doing that.”
In a speech to the conference, Eric told the room-only audience that Bitcoin represented a “financial revolution” and that his father would make the United States the cryptocurrency capital of the world by resisting over-regulation and fighting barriers.
Amid jeers from the audience, he asked if anyone liked Gary Gensler, the SEC chairman who has brought cases against several prominent figures in the cryptocurrency space, some of whom were also present at the conference. Donald Trump has chosen respected Washington lawyer Paul Atkins to succeed him.
“Gary Gensler has waged war against the industry we all love and everyone knows,” Eric Trump told the crowd, praising Atkins as “an incredible ally to this incredible industry.”
In the interview, Eric said that his father had a great relationship with leaders in the Middle East, and that four years of “absolute hell and chaos” under the Biden administration would quickly return to peace and stability.