Days after Donald Trump’s election victory, a news agency in the former Soviet republic of Georgia reported that a long-stalled plan for a Trump-branded tower in a seaside Georgian resort town was now back on track.
Likewise, the local developer of a Trump Tower planned for Buenos Aires announced last week, three days after Trump spoke with Argentina’s president, that the long-delayed project was moving ahead.
Meanwhile, foreign government leaders seeking to speak with Trump have reached out to the president-elect through his overseas network of business partners, an unusually informal process for calls traditionally coordinated with the U.S. State Department.
All of it highlights the muddy new world that Trump’s election may usher in – a world in which his stature as the U.S. president, the status of his private ventures across the globe and his relationships with foreign business partners and the leaders of their governments could all become intertwined.
In that world, Trump could profit financially if his election gives a boost to his brand and results in its expansion overseas. His political rise could also enrich his overseas business partners – and, perhaps more significantly, enhance their statuses in their home countries and alter long-standing diplomatic traditions by establishing them as new conduits for public business.
It is also possible, of course, that a controversial presidency inflaming international opposition could cause damage to the brand.
Trump has done little to set boundaries between his personal and official business since winning the presidency.
He has indicated that his children may take over the business, but he has also appointed them to formal roles in his presidential transition and included daughter Ivanka on calls with world leaders. And he has continued to offer signs that he may remain engaged, at least on some level, in his private ventures.
For instance, Trump took a break from selecting his Cabinet last week for a brief meeting in his Trump Tower office with the developers of a Trump project in Pune, India, shaking hands and posing for photos with the men. When asked about the meeting, Trump told the New York Times: “I mean, what am I going to say? ‘I’m not going to talk to you.
