Todd Ricketts, President Trump’s choice for deputy Commerce Secretary, has withdrawn. Can you guess why? Yep: because he’s so rich that he can’t “untangle” himself from his financial holdings to the satisfaction of the Office of Government Ethics. Trump himself may not be subject to normal ethics rules, but everyone else is. And let’s face it: no one with substantial wealth really wants to go through all this divestment and blind trust folderol just for a deputy position. Especially in the Commerce Department, which ranks pretty low on everyone’s list of cabinet agencies.
There’s an interesting backstory here that you may remember from campaign season. Last February Trump tweeted this: “I hear the Rickets family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $’s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!” He was apparently threatening Todd’s mother, who contributed to anti-Trump causes early in the primaries, but Todd was willing to work for Trump anyway. Seems a little odd, no? In any case, I guess he was willing to work for Trump, but not all that willing.
