Failure to do so could create conflicts of interest for tax policy, bankruptcy law, labor rights, financial regulation and more, the group warned 
 
 A group of open-government watchdog groups have come together to call on Donald Trump to place his financial and business holdings in a “true blind trust” to combat conflicts of interest between his roles as the head of the Trump Organization and as US president. 
 
 “We are writing to urge you to place all of your business assets and investments into a genuine blind trust or the equivalent,” the organizations wrote in a letter addressed to Trump. “This means that control of these assets would be transferred to an independent trustee who would sell the assets and place the proceeds in investments which do not create conflicts of interest and which are not disclosed to you.” 
 
 Trump's conflicts of interest take White House into uncharted territory Read more 
 
 Trump has vowed in the past to put his holdings in a “blind trust” controlled by his children. But the Trump transition team has reportedly sought top-level security clearance for his three adult children, all of whom are employed by the Trump Organization, and his son-in-law. 
 
 “We understand that this arrangement would require you to sever your relationship with the businesses that bear your name and with which you have invested a life’s work,” the letter’s authors stated, “but whatever the personal discomfort caused, there is no acceptable alternative – and your duties to the American people now must prevail over your personal ties to the Trump Organization businesses.” 
 
 Failure to do so, the organizations warned, “will create conflicts of interest of unprecedented magnitude”, touching on issues including “tax policy, standards for government contractors, consumer protection, the functioning of the civil justice system, financial regulation, labor rights and workplace safety and health standards, and bankruptcy law”. 
 
 The letter’s signatories include the Campaign for Accountability; the Campaign Legal Center; the Center for American Progress; the Center for Media and Democracy; Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington; Common Cause; Democracy 21; former chief White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen; Essential Information; Issue One; Thomas E Mann; OpentheGovernment.Org; Norman Ornstein; former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter; the People for the American Way; the Project on Government Oversight; Public Citizen; and the Sunlight Foundation. ||||| Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump walk through the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) (Associated Press) 
 
 Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump walk through the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly every morning since their father's stunning victory on Election Day, three of Donald Trump's grown children walk through the Trump Tower lobby and board an elevator. But are Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric going to the campaign office on the fifth floor? Their business offices on the 25th floor? The president-elect's penthouse on the 56th floor? 
 
 That uncertainty highlights the multiple roles the children play for their father. For the past year, the lines were constantly blurred between political campaign and business empire, raising questions about a possible conflict of interest between Trump's White House and his sprawling business interests. 
 
 The children are poised to wield incredible influence over their father, even if they don't follow him to Washington. Trump said consistently during the campaign that if he won, those children would stay in New York and run his business. But the three — plus Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner — were all named to the transition team's executive committee. 
 
 So far, they've been heavily involved in shaping the new administration. They've sat in on meetings and taken late night calls from their father. They advocated for making Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, the White House chief of staff. They counseled against bringing back Corey Lewandowski, Trump's first campaign manager, who was fired in June on their advice. 
 
 On Thursday, Ivanka Trump and Kushner were present for the president-elect's meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Trump Tower. 
 
 Trump has insisted he will build a wall between his White House and his company by placing his holdings into a blind trust, but with his children as its trustees. Federal requirements are that independent outsiders run such trusts. 
 
 "We are in the process of vetting various structures with the goal of the immediate transfer of management of The Trump Organization and its portfolio of businesses to Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump as well as a team of highly skilled executives," Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said. She said the structure "will comply with all applicable rules and regulations." 
 
 Trump's company would be the largest business portfolio to belong to a modern sitting president. Federal ethics rules would allow Trump to run his business interests from the White House, or, perhaps more likely, influence decisions made by his children. 
 
 That raises conflict of interest concerns. For example, Trump could set domestic policy while making deals abroad that could affect his corporation, even if it were technically in his children's hands. 
 
 Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser, disputed the idea that the Trump children's involvement in the transition could lead to a breach of trust. 
 
 "You're presuming that they are doing certain things that they should not be doing," Conway said. "They are his children. And they've been his business colleagues for a long period of time. They obviously will support their father as president." 
 
 But the potentially problematic entanglement revealed itself this past week when Ivanka Trump's company promoted a $10,800 bracelet she wore during a "60 Minutes" interview on CBS. The spokeswoman for the company later apologized. 
 
 The children — they were not made available for interviews — are limited in what formal role they could take in a Trump administration. 
 
 Congress passed an anti-nepotism law in 1967 that prohibits the president from appointing a family member to work in the office or agency they oversee. The measure was passed as a reaction to President John F. Kennedy appointing his brother Robert as attorney general. 
 
 But the law does not appear to prevent the children — or Kushner, who is one of Trump's closest aides and is said to be weighing a White House role — from serving as unpaid advisers or providing informal counsel. 
 
 The three grown children — their mother is Ivana Trump, Trump's first wife — delivered well-received speeches at this summer's Republican National Convention in which they tried to humanize their father. 
 
 Don Jr. and Eric were staples on conservative radio and on the road, trekking to campaign offices and small rallies across battleground states like Ohio and North Carolina. Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, was utilized in some of the campaign's biggest moments, including introducing her father before his convention speech, unveiling his family leave plan and campaigning across the crucial Philadelphia suburbs. 
 
 Another daughter, Tiffany Trump, a recent college graduate whose mother is Trump's second wife, Marla Maples, also made appearances on her father's behalf. Trump's youngest child, 10-year-old Barron, whose mother is the president-elect's current wife, Melania, is enrolled at a private Manhattan school. Trump on Sunday told reporters that Mrs. Trump and their son will move to Washington after the school year ends. 
 
 For the three eldest Trump kids, there were bumps in the road. 
 
 Eric and Ivanka were the subject of some embarrassing headlines when it was revealed that they were not registered to vote in time for their father in the New York primary. An African big-game safari Eric and Don Jr. took drew criticism from animal rights activists. And Don Jr. has received criticism for tweeting images likening Syrian refugees to a poisoned bowl of Skittles candy and a cartoon character appropriated by white supremacists. 
 
 But now they stand poised to be the most influential presidential children in decades, as recent White House offspring have been far younger than the eldest Trump children, who are all in their 30s. During the campaign, Eric Trump insisted that the children's main focus "was the company," but "we'd always be one phone call away" if needed, the younger Trump told The Associated Press in May. "We'd do anything for the man." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Reach Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire ||||| In just under nine weeks, Mr. Trump will take control of a portfolio of public business between the United States and India, the world’s two largest democracies, supervising debates over issues including climate change, maritime shadowboxing with China and the nuclear standoff with Pakistan. 
 
 The meeting shows that Mr. Trump has not fully disengaged from his business ventures even as he leads his presidential transition, and it highlights the potential conflicts he will face going forward if he does not separate himself from a brand that has been constructed around his persona. 
 
 In a telephone interview, Atul Chordia, one of the developers who met last week with Mr. Trump, played down the appointment as a “two-minute” congratulatory conversation in which no business was transacted and no new projects were discussed. 
 
 But newspapers in India reported it as a business meeting, illustrated with a photograph of the beaming real estate executives — Atul Chordia, Sagar Chordia and Kalpesh Mehta — flanking the future president, and indicated that the builders and Mr. Trump’s organization are planning further collaborative real estate projects. 
 
 Sagar Chordia confirmed to The New York Times on Sunday that this account of the meeting in New York — which included discussions with the Trump family about possible additional real estate deals — was accurate. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization did not dispute this account — saying only that the encounter with Mr. Trump himself was brief. ||||| As President-elect Donald Trump continued the work of forming his new administration Sunday, aides struggled with some of the baggage he carries with him — especially how to separate his business interests from government and the inflammatory rhetoric about Muslims that marked his campaign. 
 
 Trump met with a series of men — and one woman — who may be under consideration for high-level appointments. Among them were campaign loyalists including Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, but also some outsiders, such as Jonathan Gray, a Wall Street executive and prominent Democratic donor, and Robert Johnson, the founder of the Black Entertainment Television cable network. 
 
 "We've made a couple of deals," the president-elect said late in the day to reporters waiting at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., indicating that further Cabinet announcements could come soon. 
 
 Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), a member of the House GOP leadership, was the only woman on Sunday’s list, which also included Ari Emanuel, the prominent Hollywood agent and brother of President Obama’s former White House chief of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. 
 
 “Great guy. Great friend of mine,” Trump said. 
 
 While busy with his transition, the president-elect has found time recently for other meetings, including one with three investors from India who are partners with him in a luxury complex outside Mumbai. 
 
 A spokesperson for Trump insisted that the meeting, first reported by the New York Times, was just a courtesy call, but it renewed questions about how Trump could avoid conflicts of interest while retaining an ownership stake in his far-flung network of businesses. 
 
 Vice President-elect Mike Pence insisted in a television interview Sunday that Trump would “create the proper separation.” 
 
 In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Pence said lawyers and experts were working on how to successfully untangle Trump’s holdings from the presidency. 
 
 “I’m very confident working with the best legal minds in the country that the president-elect and his family will create the proper separation from his business going forward,” Pence told host Chris Wallace. 
 
 Trump has said he will allow his adult children to run his business ventures; government watchdogs have said he should divest his holdings or set up a blind trust. 
 
 Among the potential problems: Trump’s company has operations in other countries, often in connection with foreign governments that could steer money toward his family in an effort to influence his decisions. 
 
 In addition to the meeting with the Indian business executives, Trump and his family came under criticism when his daughter, Ivanka Trump, attended the president-elect’s first face-to-face meeting with a foreign head of government, the prime minister of Japan. 
 
 Her jewelry company also caused a stir by sending an email to reporters featuring a photograph of the $10,000 bracelet she wore during a post-election television interview with her father. 
 
 At a news conference in Lima, Peru, where he was winding up a summit of leaders from Asia and the Pacific, President Obama pointedly noted that his administration had managed to go eight years without a major ethics scandal because White House lawyers had insisted that he and his aides “not just meet the letter of the law.” 
 
 Obama said he had advised Trump to appoint a strong White House counsel who would insist on similar care. 
 
 While Trump aides continued to deal with questions about potential conflicts, they also faced controversy over some of their remarks about Islam. 
 
 Reince Priebus, Trump's designee to be the White House chief of staff, defended remarks made by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's national security advisor, that criticized Islam. 
 
 "Clearly there are some aspects of that faith that are problematic," Priebus said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” 
 
 Asked about Flynn’s statement that Islam was a political ideology masked behind a religion, Priebus said that "phrasing can always be done differently." 
 
 But he praised Flynn as "an unbelievably gifted, smart person" who has Trump's confidence. 
 
 In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Priebus said that Trump believes that "no faith in and of itself should be judged as a whole. But there are some people in countries abroad that ... need to be prevented from coming into this country." 
 
 Asked about Trump's suggestion earlier in the campaign year that Muslims might be required to register with government officials, Priebus avoided a clear answer. 
 
 "I'm not going to rule out anything. But, but I wouldn’t — we're not going to have a registry based on a religion," he said. "But what I think what we're trying to do is say that there are some people, certainly not all people ... there are some people that are radicalized, and there are some people that have to be prevented from coming into this country." 
 
 The country’s largest Muslim advocacy group condemned the remarks as examples of Islamophobia. 
 
 "Our nation is not served by the denigration of Islam or by the introduction of ineffective and discriminatory policies targeting Muslims," said Robert McCaw, government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. 
 
 Trump’s weekend in New Jersey has seen a steady parade of visitors, including some past critics. On Saturday, Trump and Pence spoke with Mitt Romney, who Pence described as a potential secretary of State pick. During the campaign, the 2012 GOP presidential candidate had been highly critical of Trump’s character and policies. 
 
 Pence said Romney was under “active consideration” to head the State Department. “The president-elect was very grateful that Mitt Romney came in,” he added, describing the hourlong meeting as a “warm and substantive exchange” of ideas. ||||| President-elect Donald Trump walks out at the clubhouse at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey on Sunday, Nov. 20. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) 
 
 Turkey is a nation in crisis, scarred by government crackdowns following a failed coup attempt and on a potential collision course with the West. It is also home to a valuable revenue stream for the president-elect’s business empire: Trump Towers Istanbul. 
 
 Donald Trump’s company has been paid up to $10 million by the tower’s developers since 2014 to affix the Trump name atop the luxury complex, whose owner, one of Turkey’s biggest oil and media conglomerates, has become an influential megaphone for the country’s increasingly repressive regime. 
 
 That, ethics advisers said, forces the Trump complex into an unprecedented nexus: as both a potential channel for dealmakers seeking to curry favor with the Trump White House and a potential target for attacks or security risks overseas. 
 
 The president-elect’s Turkey deal marks a harrowing vulnerability that even Trump has deemed “a little conflict of interest”: a private moneymaker that could open him to foreign influence and tilt his decision-making as America’s executive in chief. 
 
 But the ethics experts eyeing Trump’s empire are now warning of many others, found among a vast assortment of foreign business interests never before seen in past presidencies. At least 111 Trump companies have done business in 18 countries and territories across South America, Asia and the Middle East, a Washington Post analysis of Trump financial filings shows. 
 
 Donald Trump has a lot of potential conflicts of interest as president – but there's no law that specifically requires a commander in chief to remove themselves from all of their business interests. The Fix's Peter W. Stevenson explains why presidents usually put their assets in a "blind trust" to avoid problems. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) 
 
 The business interests range from sprawling, ultraluxury real estate complexes to one-man holding companies and branding deals in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Panama and other countries, including some where the United States maintains sensitive diplomatic ties. 
 
 Some companies reflect long-established deals while others were launched as recently as Trump’s campaign, including eight that appear tied to a potential hotel project in Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Arab kingdom that Trump has said he “would want to protect.” 
 
 Trump has refused calls to sell or give his business interests to an independent manager or “blind trust,” a long-held presidential tradition designed to combat conflicts of interest. Now, policy and ethics experts are scrambling to assess the potential dangers of public rule by a leader with a vast web of private business deals. 
 
 “There are so many diplomatic, political, even national security risks in having the president own a whole bunch of properties all over the world,” said Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush. 
 
 “If we’ve got to talk to a foreign government about their behavior, or negotiate a treaty, or some country asks us to send our troops in to defend someone else, we’ve got to make a decision. And the question becomes: Are we going in out of our national interest or because there’s a Trump casino around?” Painter added. 
 
 [Trump’s conflicts of interest are without precedent in American presidential history] 
 
 The Post analysis is based on the most recent financial- 
 
 disclosure reports filed by Trump’s campaign in May. The self-reported data was unverified by regulators, meaning the reports may not have shown all of Trump’s foreign deals or assets. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The disclosures offer a glimpse at how extensive Trump’s empire has become, including five-star hotels in Canada and Panama, elite golf courses in Ireland and Scotland, and a luxury-resort project now under development in Indonesia, home to more Muslims than any country in the world. 
 
 But the filings, the most comprehensive public documents of Trump’s business empire, largely lack details for many of the companies’ status or ambitions. Trump has refused to allow for a closer accounting of his investments or to release documents, such as his tax returns, that could provide more detail on his foreign accounts. 
 
 The companies have helped spread the Trump brand internationally and injected millions of dollars into the president-elect’s umbrella company, the Trump Organization, which continues to launch and invest in new deals for projects around the globe. 
 
 Though Trump rose to prominence as a New York builder, most of the Trump Organization’s business growth in recent years has been through real estate, management and licensing deals with developers and investors overseas. 
 
 Many of those deals involve licensing the Trump name: a valuable quantity when Trump was a famous businessman, now made more lucrative when attached to a U.S. head of state. Trevor Potter, a former Federal Election Commission chairman and general counsel for George H.W. Bush, said foreign investors could seek to seal deals with Trump’s children in hopes of cozying up or currying favor with America’s businessman in chief. 
 
 Other Trump properties, like most large projects in the real estate industry, are buoyed by a river of loans, including from big banks in China and Germany. Deutsche Bank, Trump’s biggest lender, is negotiating what could be a multibillion-dollar settlement over housing-crisis-era abuses with the Justice Department, whose leaders will be Trump appointees. 
 
 [Trump’s unusual conflict: Millions in debts to German bank now facing federal fines] 
 
 That foreign presence has become inseparable from the Trump brand and marketing. After Trump’s electoral victory, the Trump Organization congratulated the president-elect and then shortly after posted a flyover video of the “ultra exclusive” Trump Tower Punta del Este, a helipad-topped condo tower licensing Trump’s name on the coast of Uruguay. 
 
 Trump’s presidential biography on a government website, greatagain.gov, originally included a celebration of Trump’s foreign holdings and “properties around the globe.” That reference has since been removed. Trump representatives would not say why. 
 
 Foreign investors have nevertheless taken pride in Trump’s accomplishment. In India, Trump has licensed his brand to Trump Tower Mumbai, a luxury condo project being developed by Lodha Group, a real estate giant whose founder is a wealthy politician in the country’s governing party. 
 
 The president-elect and his children also met with some of Trump’s Indian business partners on Tuesday, during which they discussed the U.S. relationship with India, according to the Economic Times, an Indian newspaper. Lodha declared in one promotion: “Congratulations Mr. President-Elect. The Trump name is rising high in Mumbai too.” 
 
 Most government officials must follow strict conflict-of- 
 
 interest regulations designed to block public servants from making decisions in their own private interest. But presidents are largely exempt from those rules for fear they could impede on their wide-ranging constitutional duties. 
 
 Many modern presidents and major nominees — including Ronald Reagan, both Bushes, Bill Clinton and Mitt Romney — have nevertheless committed to selling or divesting their interests into a blind trust run by an independent overseer with unassailable control. 
 
 Trump has said he plans to give control of the Trump companies to his children, and the company has said the final arrangement “will comply with all applicable rules and regulations.” Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s executive vice president and general counsel, said in an interview in September, “His focus is going to be solely on improving the country.” 
 
 But congressional researchers and ethics advisers say leaving the company’s management to Trump’s children would not truly separate Trump’s private and public work. Even Trump has voiced confusion on the point: At a January debate, he said: “I don’t know if it’s a blind trust if Ivanka, Don and Eric run it but — is that a blind trust? I don’t know.” 
 
 Trump’s global business interests also make him vulnerable to legal risks, including a passage in the Constitution, known as the emoluments clause, that forbids government officials from receiving gifts from a foreign government. 
 
 A payment from a foreign official or state-owned company to a Trump hotel or other branded company could potentially violate that clause, constitutional experts said. 
 
 A group of ethics advisers, including former chief White House ethics lawyers during Democratic and Republican administrations, wrote Trump a letter Thursday urging him to sequester his business in a genuine blind trust or commit to a “clear firewall” between his Oval Office and his family. 
 
 “You were elected to the presidency with a promise to eliminate improper business influence in Washington,” they wrote. “There is no way to square your campaign commitments to the American people — and your even higher, ethical duties as their president — with the rampant, inescapable conflicts that will engulf your presidency if you maintain connections with the Trump Organization.” 
 
 The foreign deals could become an enduring target for liberals and other opponents of the Trump White House. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) sent a letter last week to his counterpart on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), saying, “Trump’s unprecedented secrecy and his extensive business dealings in foreign countries raise serious questions about how he intends to avoid conflicts of interest as president.” 
 
 The conflicts have even become talking points among Trump’s top supporters. In an interview on the radio show of Stephen K. Bannon, the former Breitbart News chief who has become one of the president-elect’s key advisers, Trump volunteered that he had “a little conflict of interest” in Turkey that could affect how he would handle U.S. foreign policy there. “I have a major, major building in Istanbul. It’s called Trump Towers. Two towers, instead of one,” Trump explained. 
 
 Bannon offered Trump a chance to respond to possible criticisms: “They say, ‘Hey look, this guy’s got vested business interests all over the world. How do I know he’s going to stand up to Turkey?’” Trump did not directly respond. 
 
 [How Bannon flattered and coaxed Trump on policies key to the alt-right] 
 
 After the coup attempt, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused foreign leaders and top officials in the U.S. military of “siding with coup- 
 
 plotters” and launched a brutal purge of Turkish critics. Turkey now jails more journalists than any country, including China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. 
 
 Speaking of Erdogan, Trump said during the campaign, “I do give great credit to him for turning it around,” referring to the coup attempt. Erdogan was among the first round of foreign leaders who “offered their congratulations” to Trump after the election, his transition team said Wednesday. 
 
 The potential conflicts entangle not just Trump, but also his advisers, including Michael ­Flynn, the retired lieutenant general tapped to become White House national security adviser. Flynn’s consulting firm has been hired to lobby on behalf of a group tied to the Turkish government. Flynn recently wrote an opinion piece calling for dramatic changes to U.S. policy that would parallel the Erdogan government’s goals and declaring that the country “needs our support.” 
 
 Other congratulations came from the head of Azerbaijan, where in the capital, Baku, plunging oil prices crashed the local economy and froze construction on a five-star hotel project set to bear Trump’s name. 
 
 While making millions of dollars through the branding deal, Trump partnered with a billionaire whose family is part of a long-ruling regime that the State Department has accused of corruption and human rights abuses. 
 
 After the country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, called the president-elect last week, Trump was said to thank him for his attention and “noted that he heard very good words” about Aliyev, according to the country’s state-run news agency. 
 
 [For a President Trump, global real estate deals present unprecedented gray areas] 
 
 Other potential projects remain a mystery. In August 2015, as Trump’s presidential campaign began to take flight, Trump registered eight separate companies with names such as THC Jeddah Hotel and DT Jeddah Technical Services, financial-disclosure filings show. Their names followed a pattern set by Trump companies connected to hotel deals in foreign cities: in this case, Jiddah, the second-biggest city in Saudi Arabia. 
 
 Four of those companies, in which Trump was named president or director, remained active at the time of Trump’s May financial filing. The disclosures do not provide more detail for the companies, and Trump representatives did not respond to requests for comment. 
 
 On Aug. 21, the same day Trump created four of the Jiddah companies, he told a rally crowd in Alabama: “Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.” 
 
 In January, a few months after the Jiddah companies were created, Trump told Fox News that he “would want to protect Saudi Arabia” from a potential Iranian threat but added that “Saudi Arabia is going to have to help us economically” and referenced the billions of dollars the Arab kingdom has made off the oil trade. 
 
 The children who Trump says will take the reins of his business empire have become a ubiquitous presence at Trump Tower, as well as key members of the transition team helping to assemble his cabinet. 
 
 Already, the family has shown how porous the wall between his business and diplomacy could be. Trump on Thursday welcomed Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to his New York penthouse, his first face-to-face with a foreign leader as president-elect. Joining them was a member of Trump’s transition team and an executive vice president of his business empire: his daughter Ivanka. 
 
 Kevin Sullivan contributed to this report.
– Donald Trump has a web of international business interests with few rivals in American history, let alone presidential history, warn ethics experts getting ready to take on a Trump presidency. According to a Washington Post analysis, at least 111 Trump companies have business interests in 18 countries and territories, including China, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, creating potential conflicts of interest all over the world. "There are so many diplomatic, political, even national security risks in having the president own a whole bunch of properties all over the world," warns Richard Painter, the chief ethics lawyer of the George W. Bush administration. A roundup of coverage: The Guardian reports that a coalition of watchdog groups has asked Trump to put his business holdings in a "genuine blind trust," meaning that an independent trustee would sell all his assets and put the proceeds in investments that would not be disclosed to Trump. The Trump Organization has said control of Trump's assets will be handed to his children, not an independent outsider. The New York Times reports that the developers behind the Trump Towers Pune project in India flew to New York and met briefly with Trump last week. The developers say that contrary to reports in Indian newspapers, they did not discuss business with the president-elect. Ethics lawyers, however, say that the meeting created the impression that Trump and his partners are trying to profit from his position in a way that "is unprecedented in modern history." The Los Angeles Times reports that in a Fox News Sunday appearance, Mike Pence said lawyers are working on creating the "proper separation" between Trump and his business interests. "I'm very confident working with the best legal minds in the country that the president-elect and his family will create the proper separation from his business going forward," he said. The AP looks at the roles of Trump's three eldest children—Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric—and notes that when they enter Trump Tower every day, it's never clear whether they're going to business offices, campaign offices, or their father's penthouse residence. Ivanka Trump caused controversy last week when her company promoted a $10,800 bracelet she wore during a 60 Minutes interview.