"We are at an entirely different order of concern than we've had in the past," says Noah Bookbinder, executive director of the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "You could see where Trump's actions as president could have a significant impact on that brand."
To allay such concerns, Trump could take a page from the late Nelson Rockefeller, who was an heir to a fortune and industrial empire far more substantial and consequential than anything Trump has ever overseen. In order to get confirmed as Gerald Ford's vice president in the wake of Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation, Rockefeller sat through congressional hearings in which strangers scoured his family's business dealings and finances.
“My sole purpose is to serve my country," Rockefeller told his Senate inquisitors at the time. "I would not be influenced by so-called interests.”
Can we expect the same from Trump? Well, in more than four decades in business, Trump has prided himself on stretching, not following, rules. "The Outlaw archetype loves to break the rules," Trump once advised aspiring entrepreneurs in "Midas Touch," his 2011 book. "The motto of the Outlaw is: 'Rules are meant to be broken.'"
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.