(Bloomberg) — President-elect Donald Trump transfered about $4 billion worth of shares in his media company to a trust that is controlled by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
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The soon-to-be president, who was the largest Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. shareholder with nearly 115 million shares, will now directly own zero shares and be the trust’s sole beneficiary, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to a separate filing on Thursday evening, Donald Trump Jr. “has sole voting and investment power over all securities owned by the Trust.”
The move is similar to the approach Trump took in his first term on the conflicts of interest that his sprawling real estate empire posed. Instead of divesting his assets, Trump put them into a trust managed by his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive of his business.
Critics, including Walter Shaub, then the director of the Office of Government Ethics, argued the arrangement didn’t eliminate his potential conflicts. They said Trump was still aware of which assets were held by the trust, those running it weren’t independent, and his companies continued to do business, benefiting him financially.
Unlike other high ranking members of the executive branch, including cabinet secretaries and White House officials, US presidents aren’t required under federal law to divest assets, even if they pose a conflict of interest. Since the passage of the Ethics in Government Act in 1978, the post-Watergate reform measure that aims to eliminate conflicts, all other presidents voluntarily abided by it.
In the weeks prior to his reelection, Trump said he wouldn’t sell any shares in the media company, which trades under his initials and went public in March through a blank-check merger.
The stock has been volatile since its debut as investors ignored its fundamentals. Shares in the company traded 4.6% lower on Friday.
Shares, which had been in decline, started to rebound during the last leg of the US presidential election. Investors used the stock as a proxy for betting on Trump’s reelection odds, propelling the unprofitable company’s valuation to more than $10 billion at one point.
–With assistance from Matt Turner.
