Prof. Richard Painter Quoted by New York Times Columnist Thomas Friedman About Trump Stock Trades

Professor Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, was quoted by New York Times opinion columnist Thomas Friedman about one of the many ways Friedman says “Donald Trump behaves more like America’s commander in thief than its commander in chief.” He quotes the Associate Press when it said Trump should also be called “trader in chief” because “recent presidents have stayed away from trading stocks in companies whose fortunes they could lift or scuttle with the stroke of a pen, but Donald Trump smashed that precedent in the first quarter of this year with more than 3,600 buy and sell orders,” The AP said, “many of them involving companies whose profits have been directly impacted by his decisions as head of the government” which was an average of 50 trades a day in stocks that included U.S. military suppliers affected by the Iran war. In reaction to that, Prof. Painter said, “If he were defense secretary, he would be committing a crime. Technically he can do this, but it is a fundamental breach of trust.”