The Times has another cruel headline about Trump, although this one won’t bother him because he won’t get it.

Trump Vows Steps to Avoid Appearance of Business Conflicts

Precisely. He’s throwing a damp kleenex over his business conflicts, but not, of course, actually terminating them. He’s hoping to conceal them; he’s not in the least hoping to do away with them.

The headline is pretty funny, really, despite the horror of the reality behind it. Trump promises to try to hide how corrupt he is. Cool, bro, thanks.

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday said he would take steps to separate himself from his vast, global business empire in the hopes of preventing the appearance of a conflict of interest as he becomes president.

But Mr. Trump’s announcement, delivered in a series of early-morning posts on Twitter, drew an immediate rebuke from legal and ethics experts in Washington, who said that a close reading of the actual words in the posts suggests that Mr. Trump is not planning to take sufficient steps to eliminate the conflicts.

The president-elect provided few details, but promised to hold a “major news conference” with his adult children in two weeks to reveal legal documents that will remove him from what he called the “business operations” of his company. He vowed to leave the Trump Organization “in total” to focus on running the country from the White House.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/803931490514075648

That last sentence is so grotesque…as if we need to be told that the presidency is more important than his profits, when he’s the only one who’s confused about it. He’s such a goon.

The emphasis on “business operations,” not on ownership, hinted that Mr. Trump is not ruling out retaining a financial stake in the Trump Organization or putting his children in control of the company. Ethics experts said such moves would leave Mr. Trump vulnerable to accusations that his official actions are motivated by personal financial interests.

More to the point, such moves would leave all of us vulnerable to the fallout from Trump’s corruption.

Reince Priebus, who will be the White House chief of staff, said on the MSNBC program “Morning Joe” that he was not ready to provide any more information about the legal discussions.

“You should know that he’s got the best people in the world working on it,” Mr. Priebus said, adding that the American people were aware of Mr. Trump’s business entanglements when they elected him.

Well that’s outrageous. No they weren’t. Some were, if they took the trouble to look into it, but it’s ludicrous to say they all were, since it’s not as if Trump and his campaign made a point of talking about them, is it. It would be fair for Priebus to say the information was available before the election, but it’s insulting to claim everyone was aware of the information.

But hey, it’s appearance that counts.