“The law is totally on my side ... the president can’t have a conflict of interest.” Donald Trump’s comment, in an interview last week, will not reassure Americans worried about having a president who also owns a big global business. The echo of an earlier assertion of presidential prerogative — Richard Nixon’s claim that “when the president does it, that means it is not illegal” — was impossible to miss.
The parallel is imperfect. Nixon was looking back at his presidency, and referring to national security issues specifically. And Mr Trump’s comment is, unlike Nixon’s, true — in one important sense. The rules forbidding officials’ involvement in matters where they have a financial interest do not apply to the president. The law reflects the great reach of the office under the constitution. Avoiding all conflicts would make the job impossible.
That does not mean that Mr Trump can mix the nation’s business and his own without restraint. There is, to start, a distinction between what the law requires and what a leader should do. Flouting ethical standards corrodes the ability to govern, as President Bill Clinton, for example, discovered.