title:  Trump Is Already Creating A STRIKING Double Standard With Requirements For His Administration
text: One of the major issues of the 2016 campaign was Trump s taxes, and the reason everyone made such a big deal of it was the fact that, except for a financial disclosure that was about as vague as possible, he was being as opaque as he could. It s hard to trust someone who s that opaque. For applicants for his transition team and administration? They have to be transparent about it, which reveals massive double standards on Trump s part.The transition team s website, GreatAgain.gov, says: Financial holdings and sources of income must be disclosed. Any conflicts must be remedied by divestiture, the creation of special trusts, and other actions. Okay, so they can do that with financial disclosures rather than their tax returns. In fact, they ll be required to file those financial disclosures. But then there s this, which is where Trump s hypocrisy comes in: You will be asked about possible conflicts of interest deriving from your sources of income; all aspects of your personal and professional life, including organization [sic] which you belong or once belonged; speeches you may have given and books, articles and editorials you may have written; legal, administrative and regulatory proceedings to which you may have been a party; in short, anything that might embarrass the President or you if he should choose you for a position in his administration. This refers, in part, to the SF-86, which is required for anyone in order to gain a security clearance. The kicker is this: Even knowing that these job candidates have to give out sensitive and detailed information about their lives, it shows that Trump is applying a different set of standards to himself than those by which his workforce must abide.Trump gets away with being opaque to everyone and probably pats himself on the back for it, and can continue to be so while his candidates will have to be forthcoming and detailed. He can even continue to lie about things that are important to gain the public s trust. His candidates?Nope.The SF-86 is ridiculously thorough, and it s an ungodly pain in the ass to fill out because of that, even through the online e-Qip system. It asks for a lot of financial information (along with just about everything else that was ever in your life) including bankruptcies, tax liens, repossessions, judgments entered against you, and more. A lot of this is information that Trump has flatly lied about, denied, or downplayed. His candidates don t have that luxury.Information provided on the SF-86 is covered under the Privacy Act, so his candidates  info will not be made public, even through a FOIA request. Someone handling those forms and investigations would have to get stupid in order for that info to be made public.The double standard remains, though. Trump is a hypocrite who is already making it clear that he won t live or govern by the same standards that everyone else must live and/or govern. That s absurd.Featured image by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images