Donald Trump hasn't released any further details on what “no new deals” in his tweet meant, leaving him plenty of wiggle room to redefine the pledge later. | AP Photo Presidential transition ‘No new deals’? Trump critics aren’t buying it It’s a bold promise, but observers can’t figure out how Trump could keep it without closing his business empire entirely.

Hours after going back on his promised press conference on avoiding conflicts of interest, President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter late Monday night to make a bold promise: “No new deals” for his business during his time in office.

It’s a big, bold promise that, if enacted, would go a long way toward protecting his administration’s credibility. It’s also, according to Trump’s critics, a promise that is impossible for Trump to keep.


Trump is stepping away from his business, but he plans to maintain ownership of his sprawling empire of hotels, real estate, golf courses and other investments, as well as of the trademark licenses attached to his name. That means he’ll have a major financial stake in the moves his sons, Eric and Donald Jr., make to keep the company going. Trump also controls 500-plus private companies, and those rely on routine transactions.

Added up, that means there will be new deals — and lots of them.

“It makes no sense. You can’t run a business without deals,” said Richard Painter, the former top ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House. “He’s going to receive rent from foreign controlled entities. He’s going to continue to rent rooms to diplomats from foreign countries.”

Norm Eisen, President Barack Obama’s former top White House ethics lawyer, added: “All he’s saying is that he will not add brand-new major projects. Of course, managing the existing ones will involve a constant flow of new transactions, contracts, negotiations, customers and, expansions.”

“In other words, ‘new deals,’” Eisen added.

The “no new deals” pledge came soon after Trump’s team announced he was postponing a “major press conference” set for Dec. 15 where he’d promised he would lay out a comprehensive plan for untangling himself from his business interests. (As part of the tweet mini-spree, Trump also announced that his daughter Ivanka wouldn’t be involved in the day-to-day management of the company, a task that will fall to his adult sons and a council of executives.)

Trump didn’t release any further details on what “no new deals” meant, leaving him plenty of wiggle room to redefine the pledge later. But the blanket promise didn’t satisfy Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“The idea that Mr. Trump won’t do any future deals completely misses the point,” the lawmaker said in a statement to POLITICO. “He already has a web of global entanglements that has to be addressed. Giving his kids control of the business is not going to fix this. He seems to be in denial, and that may be why he canceled his press conference.”

But Trump’s pledge shouldn’t be dismissed outright, said Kenneth Gross, an ethics lawyer and former enforcement official from the Federal Election Commission. While it’s difficult know the full extent of Trump’s business arrangements given the limits on what information is publicly available for a private company, Gross said the promise does provide a useful signal that any major new acquisitions will be shelved. “I’d say no new deals is a step in the right direction. It could be a significant step in the right direction,” he told POLITICO.

Monday’s tweet marked the first time Trump had publicly made the “no new deals” pledge, though it apparently was among the items long under consideration inside Trump Tower. Just days after the Nov. 8 election, CNBC cited an unnamed source close to the president-elect’s family who said business expansions were headed for the backburner now that Trump was on his way to the White House.

“They’re going to just manage them and let the existing assets grow organically. But they’re not going to do a lot of new deals or acquisitions,” the source told CNBC.

Trump’s ‘no new deals’ pledge also came as Republicans have been privately grousing to his team over how he’s been handling concerns about his business conflicts, including his remarks during a Sunday appearance on FOX News. There, the president-elect sought to deflect a question about his administration’s potential ethical landmines by confirming he was still taking business meetings as recently as last week.

“I am turning down billions of dollars of deals,” Trump said, citing an unspecified offer involving “seven deals with one big player, great player, last week, because I thought it could be perceived as a conflict of interest.”

While Trump has political room to maneuver on his business conflicts – House Speaker Paul Ryan last week said the president-elect can handle the issue “however he wants to” -- a former associate to the president-elect said the GOP is very much concerned about the long-term effect that Democratic hits on the topic will have on the party. “That’s going to have legs…’The guy wants to drain the swamp, yet he’s making money off the Oval Office,’” said the Republican source.

Trump’s businesses have been the subject of intense scrutiny since his upset White House victory. His daughter Ivanka was in attendance during his first face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The new Trump hotel in the renovated Old Post Office Building just blocks from the White House has been booked this month by the Azerbaijani and Bahraini embassies.

The president-elect’s business executives have also been reported visiting both Taiwan and Cuba in recent months, though in both instances the company has issued statements to reporters explaining there are no plans for expansions in the countries. “It is important for us to understand the dynamics of the markets that our competitors are exploring,” a Trump Organization spokesperson said in a statement referring to the Cuba visit.

Some of Trump’s business efforts also appear to be winding down. Citing corporate registrations in Delaware, the AP reported last Friday that Trump had shuttered some of his companies since the election, including four related to potential Saudi Arabia business ventures. Trump general counsel Alan Garten told the wire service that the four companies closure was part of routine “housecleaning.”