Jan 11, 2017:

At a press conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan, Sheri Dillon, an attorney for Trump, explained why he will formally leave his businesses but will not sell off his interests.

Per Sheri Dillon, here are the details:

• Trump's business and financial assets will be placed in a trust (but not a blind trust) before he is inaugurated on January 20.
• Trump will receive reports on the overall profit of the Trump Organization, and the organization will still enter into deals in the United States, provided they are cleared by an in-house ethics adviser. The Trump Organization will not enter new deals in foreign countries while Trump is president.
• Trump will resign his leadership of the company and transfer control to his two adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and a Trump Organization executive. Trump will not discuss the business with them.

Dillon told reporters that establishing a blind trust would be too complicated, and that no independent trustee is capable of running the Trump Organization. "President-elect Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built," she said. "This plan offers a suitable alternative to address the concerns of the American people."

• Trump will donate to the U.S. Treasury any profits from foreign government payments to his hotels.

But she [Dillon] dismissed concerns that Trump, by accepting hotel business from foreign governments, will be violating the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, as outside ethics experts have said. "No one would have thought when the Constitution was written that paying your hotel bill was an Emolument," she said. Of the donations to the Treasury, she said, "This way it is the American people who will profit."

• Trump will receive profit-and-loss reports on the company as a whole, but he will not see an accounting for individual businesses within the Trump Organization.
• The Trump Organization will add a chief compliance officer to its leadership ranks.

Source:

Disis, Jill; Diamond, Jeremy. (January 11, 2017). "Trump will leave business, but won't sell". CNN. Retrieved 2017-01-15.

Dec 15, 2016:

Five Democratic senators are co-sponsoring a bill to require:

• the President and Vice-president to disclose and divest any potential financial conflicts of interest
• presidential appointees to recuse themselves from any specific matters involving the President's financial conflicts of interest that come before their agencies

The bill will be introduced in January and is sponsored by Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), Ben Cardin (Maryland), Chris Coons (Delaware), Dick Durbin (Illinois), and Jeff Merkley (Oregon).

Senator Warren said:

The American people deserve to know that the President of the United States is working to do what's best for the country - not using his office to do what's best for himself and his businesses.

The only way for President-elect Trump to truly eliminate conflicts-of-interest is to divest his financial interests and place them in a blind trust. This has been the standard for previous presidents, and our bill makes clear the continuing expectation that President-elect Trump do the same.

Senator Durbin said:

President-elect Trump's financial entanglements are unprecedented in American history, and the American people are still waiting to hear what steps he will take before January 20th to guard against conflicts of interest and corruption in his Administration.

Source:

Warren, Elizabeth. (December 15, 2016). "Senate Democrats to Introduce Bill to Require President and Vice President to Fully Divest Personal Financial Conflicts of Interest". warren.senate.gov. Retrieved 2016-12-15.

Dec 13, 2016:

In a letter, U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Director Walter M. Shaub, Jr. said the following about President-elect Trump:

Transferring operational control of a company to one's children would not constitute the establishment of a qualified blind trust, nor would it eliminate conflicts of interest.

Given the unique circumstances of the Presidency, OGE's view is that a President should comply with this law by divesting conflicting assets, establishing a qualified blind trust, or both.

Source:

Zarroli, Jim. (December 13, 2016). "Government Ethics Office Says Trump Should Divest Himself Of His Businesses". NPR. Retrieved 2016-12-15.

Dec 12, 2016:

Donald Trump postponed a December 15 news conference where he was going to discuss his business interests.

Trump said he would put his two sons Don and Eric in charge of his business dealings by Inauguration Day. He also said he would make no new business deals during his time in the White House, and that he would hold a press conference in the near future to address his business interests.

Trump Says No Deals While in Office; Sons Will Run Company | Bloomberg News

Trump promises 'no new deals' while president, Ivanka won't manage company | Politico

Nov 30, 2016:

In a series of tweets, Trump said:

I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to make America great again.

While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as president, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses.

It wasn't clear from the tweets if Trump's children would be involved.

Source:

(November 30, 2016). "Trump says he's leaving his businesses to focus on presidency". Fox News. Retrieved 2016-12-01.

Nov 28, 2016:

In an op-ed in The New York Times entitled "Why Corruption Matters", Paul Krugman said the following:

America has just entered an era of unprecedented corruption at the top.

What's important is not the money that sticks to the fingers of the inner circle, but what they do to get that money, and the bad policy that results.

But now we're going to see a third factor powerfully at work: What policies can officials, very much including the man at the top, personally monetize? And the effect will be disastrous.

But what's truly scary is the potential impact of corruption on foreign policy.

What kind of regime can buy influence by enriching the president and his friends? The answer is, only a government that doesn't adhere to the rule of law.

So how bad will the effects of Trump-era corruption be? The best guess is, worse than you can possibly imagine.

Nov 15, 2016:

In an op-ed in The Washington Post entitled "Trump's 'blind trust' is neither blind nor trustworthy", Richard Painter and Norman Eisen discuss the challenges President-elect Trump faces in dealing with his extensive and far-reaching assets and businesses.

Richard Painter, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, was the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. Norman Eisen, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, was the chief White House ethics lawyer for President Obama from 2009 to 2011.

Michael Cohen, an attorney for Trump and the Trump Organization, has said that Trump will be able to have his three adult children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric manage his assets and businesses via a blind trust.

Wikipedia defines a "blind trust" as follows:

A blind trust is a trust in which the trust beneficiaries have no knowledge of the holdings of the trust, and no right to intervene in their handling. In a blind trust, the trustees (fiduciaries, or those who have been given power of attorney) have full discretion over the assets. Blind trusts are generally used when a trust creator (sometimes called a settlor, trustor, grantor, or donor) wishes to keep the beneficiary unaware of the specific assets in the trust, such as to avoid conflict of interest between the beneficiary and the investments.

Source:

"Blind trust". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2016-12-01.

Painter and Eisen point out two major flaws in the idea of a "blind trust" for Trump's assets:

• Trump would still know what assets and businesses are in the trust (usually, assets and businesses are sold prior to being placed in a "blind trust" so the owner has no knowledge of what's in the trust)
• Trump would know the the trustees, the people managing the trust (his children)

Painter and Eisen suggest following:

First, Trump should appoint an independent, professional trustee to take charge of liquidating and converting to cash Trump business holdings through an initial public offering or leveraged buyout.

Second, the proceeds of the IPO or buyout should be turned over to the trustee to be managed. The trustee can then invest these assets on Trump's behalf. The trustee would report to Trump regularly on the value of the trust but not on what is in it. Some of the proceeds of the sale of the businesses could also be invested in U.S. treasury bonds, mutual funds and other widely diversified assets that do not create conflicts of interest with the duties of the presidency.

Third, while Trump's children and their spouses are dealing with any Trump business matters, he should ask them to step away from the transition team and the White House, and to not advise him or be involved in any U.S. government affairs.

Regarding the concern that taking the family businesses away from his children would be unfair to them, Painter and Eisen say following:

So if the Trump children end up having a continuing role in any of the Trump businesses, including after the sale, the new president should establish an ethics "firewall". He should pledge not to discuss the businesses with his kids or anyone else involved. As an extra safeguard, contacts about the Trump businesses should be prohibited between all other administration officials and people involved in the businesses, including the Trump children. Except for personal communication with the president or first lady, such telephone calls and emails should be routed to White House counsel to make sure that the firewall is not breached.

Painter and Eisen close by saying:

The alternative approach apparently being contemplated — Trump maintaining an interest in his businesses and letting his children manage that interest — risks making his transition and his presidency the most conflicted in modern history.

More:

• Donald Trump will violate the US constitution on inauguration day | The Guardian
• 5 questions — and answers — about Donald Trump and conflicts of interest | USA Today
• Battle Brewing on Hill Over Trump's Business Interests | Real Clear Politics
• 'A recipe for scandal': Trump conflicts of interest point to constitutional crisis | The Guardian
• Donald Trump's 'Blind Trust' Plan Makes No Sense | Newsweek
• Will Trump's kids help run his businesses or help run the country? | The Washington Post
• Why Trump Won't Use A Blind Trust And What His Predecessors Did With Their Assets | Forbes
• Trump's Conflict-of-Interest Problem | The New Yorker