Donald Trump’s former ethics chief has claimed the President is making the United States an international laughingstock.
Mr Trump’s unprecedented conflicts of interest – and unwillingness to disentangle from them – have created an ethics crisis, former Director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub said.
“It’s hard for the United States to pursue international anti-corruption and ethics initiatives when we’re not even keeping our own side of the street clean. It affects our
credibility,” Mr Shaub told The New York Times. “I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point.”
Mr Shaub, who was appointed to his position by former President Barack Obama in 2013, announced his 19 July resignation earlier this month. His role as OGE Director was to promote laws concerning conflicts of interest in government, while overseeing White House employees' financial disclosures and providing ethics training.
“It’s clear that there isn’t more I could accomplish [at the OGE],” Mr Shaub told The Washington Post of his resignation.
He added: “In working with the current administration, it has become clear that we need to strengthen the ethics program."
The Director has clashed with the Trump administration frequently since inauguration day, pushing the President to divest from his businesses and reprimanding one of his top advisers, Kellyanne Conway.
In November, the OGE tweeted at Mr Trump to say it was "delighted that you’ve decided to divest your businesses. Right decision!” The President had not, in fact, divested.
Later, Mr Shaub publicly criticised Mr Trump’s decision to set up a blind trust for his business interests, deeming it "not even halfway blind”.
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