Coming soon: a new website as a resource for enterprise journalists covering the Trump presidency – investigatingtrump.com

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By Peter Lance Dec. 7th, 2016 investigatingtrump.com 

The prospect of the impending Trump administration presents the media with challenges, unknown since the Nixon presidency.

Apart from his questionable appointments like Lieutenant Gen. Mike Flynn as National Security Advisor; a man whose son was fired Tuesday from the transition team after he’d pushed the fake news “Pizzagate” story that led to a shooting at a DC restaurant, there are epic conflict-of-interest questions regarding Mr. Trump’s personal finances.

Those conflict issues fly in the face of his “drain the swamp” campaign promises and they’ve already been manifested in his “off-the-books” meetings or conversations with government and corporate officials from Japan, India, The Philippines and Taiwan.

Then there are the potential influence-buying moves by foreign governments looking to curry favor by booking rooms and events at The Old Post Office, Mr. Trump’s latest luxury hotel down the street from the White House. In fact, the 60 year $180 million dollar Post Office lease itself, will become illegal the moment he takes the oath of office.

On December 1st, Nadja Popovic and Jan Diehm of The Guardian did a piece noting how Trump might  keep the hotel in his family by appointing a new head of the General Services Administration (GSA) who could re-negotiate the deal, which currently bars “elected officials” of the U.S. government from benefiting from the Post Office lease in any way.

The Guardian story also focuses on how the National Labor Relations Board, which is currently investigating  unfair labor practices at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas might knuckle under once Trump fills the two vacant seats on the NLRB.

And then there’s the current Department of Justice action against Deutsche Bank, the Trump Organization’s “lender of choice” which has been asked to pay more than $14 billion for its role in the 2008 financial meltdown by selling toxic mortgage-backed securities.

The German lender has been trying to negotiate down its fine to $2-3 billion. So query whether Sen. Jeff Sessions, Mr. Trump’s pick for Attorney General, would intervene to water down that deal.

All of this points to the slippery tip of a very deep iceberg and it’s our intent with this website to act as a clearing house for all enterprise journalists who will aggressively cover the 45th President.

After all, he’s unlikely to get any serious oversight by the House and Senate committees controlled by his own party or the various Inspectors General of the many executive branch agencies that he’ll staff. So if reporters don’t hold him accountable who will?  Stay tuned.