CONFLICT OF INTEREST/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump raised eyebrows after he posted five congratulatory tweets promoting a Monday announcement from the energy giant ExxonMobil, the company from which his secretary of state came to the administration.
The company had said earlier in the day that it was expanding its manufacturing operation along the Gulf Coast and creating more than 45,000 jobs in the region…
he touting of Exxon’s move fit with Trump’s promise that jobs would be created in the country under his watch. But it entered a ‘gray area’ in terms of ethically acceptable language and promotion from the White House of an individual business, experts said.
‘They ought to be careful,’ Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former top ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, told Business Insider. ‘I mean, we would advise them to distance themselves, congratulate a company for the good work they do creating jobs, but not doing so much that it looks like you’re shilling for the company.’ “
–Allan Smith, “‘They ought to be careful’: Trump raises eyebrows with heavy promotion of ExxonMobil announcement,” Business Insider, March 7, 2017