President Donald Trump defended his family during a Thursday interview with CNBC over criticisms that they have grown their wealth by billions of dollars since he reentered office last January.
Earlier this week, Trump’s financial disclosure forms showed he earned more than $1 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency venture alone, on top of hundreds of millions from other investments.
The president, who, unlike other lawmakers, is statutorily exempt from conflict of interest laws, previously discounted allegations of self-enrichment, but he told CNBC’s Joe Kernen he “feels bad” for his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who run his business empire.
“Every time my kids invest in a stock or they go and do anything they do — because the presidency is so powerful, so big, everything, if they buy a cupcake company — well, the energy to make the cupcakes is, you know, it’s sort of like, how’s my energy policy?” he said. “You have a conflict, almost anything they do. If they want to buy a truck, if they want to buy, you know, they buy an energy-efficient truck — they have inside information. So it’s pretty tough in that sense.”
“I tell my kids, stay away from as much as you can stay away from, but they also have a life,” the president continued. “They were doing business long before I even thought of — you knew me a long time — before I thought of even running.”
TRUMP WON’T RENEW TRADE AGREEMENT WITH CANADA AND MEXICO
Earlier in the interview, Trump reiterated his defense of his investment positions, noting he doesn’t speak to the managers of his blind accounts, and pointed to his refusal to take the president’s $400,000 annual salary across his nearly six years in office.
“The president’s the highest paid person in government, and you know, by some standards, gets a lot of money. I don’t. I’m the only president they say that’s ever given up — I gave up my salary,” he told Kernen. “I gave it up, and that’s a lot of, you know, by some standards it’s a lot of money.”