Flanked by a dozen American flags and gripping a lectern, Donald Trump began his first press conference in 168 days, one meant to address the myriad conflicts of interest that he could face as president, by bragging about how he had recently turned down an opportunity to make billions of dollars in the Middle East. “Over the weekend, I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very amazing guy,” the president-elect told reporters, who had assembled at Trump Tower to hear how the president-elect plans to resolve his sprawling financial interests in the Trump Organization, and to ask him questions after he unexpectedly cancelled a previous press conference on the subject last month.

“President-elect Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built.”

What they received instead, however, was a largely defensive and digressive explanation of Trump’s profound disinterest in the topic. Trump discussed the pharmaceutical industry and the auto business, but he mainly focused on various obfuscations. “Two-billion dollars to do a number of deals,” he continued. “I turned it down. I didn’t have to turn it down. . . . I have no conflict-of-interest provision as president. I could actually run my business and run government at the same time. I can run the Trump Organization—a great, great company—and run the country. I’d do a great job.”

That is not, in fact, what Trump plans to do. His solution, instead, involves handing the management of his business over to his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who were standing to his right onstage, along with their sister Ivanka, who will step down from the Trump Organization to move her family to Washington. Her husband, Jared Kushner, will serve in the West Wing as senior adviser to the president, flouting federal anti-nepotism laws that Kushner’s lawyers argue do not apply to the White House.

Trump himself will not divest his financial interest in his company, claiming that he will pay it no mind as president. “[My two sons] are going to be running it in a very professional manner. They are not going to discuss it with me,” he said. Later in the presser, he said that when his time in office is over, he hopes to discover that his sons did a good job. And if they don’t, he will give them his signature reality-television line: “You’re fired.” He pointed to a stack of manila folders set up on a table just to his side—six sloppily arranged files and papers that allegedly contained hundreds of documents he had signed in order to turn over control of his company and avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest.

After only about 20 minutes behind the microphone and only several questions from the press, Trump brought up Sheri Dillon, a tax attorney who has helped the president-elect determine how to comply with ethics standards, to read a statement. “He directed me to design a structure for his business empire that would completely isolate him from the management of the company,” said Dillon, who also helped build protections that would assure the American people that Trump is not exploiting the office of the presidency.

That structure includes Trump stepping away from all management roles within the Trump Organization. Dillon stated that the Trump Organization will not make any foreign deals for the duration of his administration, but his sons will be able to make deals domestically. An appointed ethics adviser, who was not named, will be required to sign off on all new deals that his sons choose to make before they go forward. She also stated that Trump has canceled all pending deals—about 30 or so—and gotten rid of his stock holdings. In addition, she explained that Trump will not talk to his sons about the business, and the only information he will receive on the health of the business will be generalized reports on profits and losses and what he reads in newspapers and sees on television. The Trump Organization’s social-media accounts will also be completely separate from Trump himself and the office of the president.