Obama suggests Trump follow his example on business conflicts
LIMA, Peru— President Barack Obama said Sunday he’d avoided ethical scandals throughout his administration by trying to follow the spirit, not just the letter of the law, and suggested President-elect Donald Trump would be wise to follow his example.
Closing out his final foreign trip, Obama was asked about the complex conflict-of-interest questions Trump faces as he transitions from real estate mogul to Oval Office occupant. Though Obama declined to explicitly offer Trump advice, the president said he’d been served well by selling his assets and investing them in Treasury bills.
“It simplified my life,” Obama said. “I did not have to worry about the complexities of whether a decision that I made might even inadvertently benefit me.”
Good government advocates have criticized Trump’s decision not to liquidate his sprawling business interests, but put them in a blind trust entrusted to his children, who are playing major roles in helping him form his administration and are expected to remain involved in one capacity or another.
Obama said he was proud his administration hadn’t faced the scandals he said have “plagued” other administrations. He said after eight years, he felt he could tell Americans he’d lived up to his promise to run an accountable and ethical government.
Obama’s remarks came as he concluded his final world tour as president.
Obama chatted briefly earlier Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the summit got under way. The conversation, which was likely to be the leaders’ last face-to-face interaction, lasted just four minutes.
Obama later told reporters he encouraged Putin to uphold his country’s commitments under the Minsk deal aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict. Both the White House and the Kremlin said the leaders had agreed that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov should keep working throughout Obama’s final months on initiatives to lower violence in Syria.
Putin, speaking later in Lima, said he and Obama had noted that while their working relationship had been difficult, they’d “always respected each other’s positions — and each other.”
“I thanked him for the years of joint work, and said that at any time, if he considers it possible and will have the need and desire, we will be happy to see him in Russia,” Putin said.
Leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific nations ended their summit with a call to resist protectionism amid signs of increased free-trade skepticism, highlighted by the victory of Trump in the U.S.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum also closed with a pledge to work toward a sweeping new free trade agreement that would include all 21 members as a path to “sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth,” despite the political climate.