IN LATE APRIL, Donald Trump boarded Air Force One for his 26th trip to Palm Beach of his second term. War was stirring in the Middle East. Gas prices and grocery costs were rising across America. But the president had more important business to attend to. He was headed to Mar-a-Lago, where nearly 300 holders of his memecoin were gathering for a private event.

Launched three days before Trump’s inauguration, the coin had provided him with about $635 million during his first year in office. The event added appeal to an asset devoid of intrinsic value, treating top buyers to a lineup of prominent guests, including billionaire Tim Draper, investor Cathie Wood and boxer Mike Tyson. The main attraction, however, was the president himself.

Guests filed into a ballroom bedizened with the trappings of the Trump brand: crystal chandeliers, walls spattered with gold ornaments, merchandise bearing the president’s name. On seats throughout the room sat goodie bags featuring trading cards with Trump’s picture, gold statuettes in his image and MAGA-red watches imprinted with his signature.

Bill Zanker, the guy behind this bazaar, took to the stage to warm up the crowd with some personal stories. “At around midnight two months ago, I get a call from the president,” he said. “I’m in bed. Kind of drowsy, sleepy a little bit. He calls up. He says, ‘What are you doing?’ I go, ‘I’m in bed, sleeping.’ He goes, ‘Hey, listen, I’ve looked at our Trump watch logo. I don’t think it’s great.’ Now, this is the president of the United States. Busy. He says, ‘I think we’ve got to change the logo to make it more modern.’

“I say, ‘Okay, sure.’ I wake up in the morning. There’s the new logo. I can’t believe it. I went to sleep around 12:30. I got up at 7. New logo. And what’s crazy is, with the new logo, our Trump watches sold even faster.”

While fairly quotidian, the story was notable for what it exposed about a fundamental assumption underlying Donald Trump’s career in politics. For years, Trump and his family have maintained that, even though he continues to own his assets, the president is walled off from decision making inside the Trump Organization.

Sure, first sons Eric and Don Jr. handle the day-to-day responsibilities, but the president still weighs in when he wants, according to those who have interacted with him directly. Sometimes, he gets involved in big-picture decisions, such as whether to sell a property. Other times, he digs into operational details, like golf-course landscaping, Mar-a-Lago maintenance and that watch logo. He talks business with his sons, his employees, his partners, even world leaders.

The official position still remains the same. “There are no conflicts of interest,” the White House repeatedly says when asked about Trump’s business. Recently, deputy press secretary Anna Kelly tried out a new line. “All of President Trump’s assets are held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions,” she said, before accusing “the fake news media” of “years of lies and false accusations.”

But, with the exception of his stock-and-bond portfolio, Trump’s assets are not managed by third-party institutions. When informed of that, Kelly responded, “You can use the rest of the statement if you don’t want to use the first sentence.”

ON JANUARY 11, 2017, nine days before his first inauguration, Donald Trump convened a press conference inside Trump Tower to explain how he planned to separate himself from his business.

He wouldn’t sell his assets or put them in a blind trust. Instead, he would set them in a trust overseen by his family and a longtime executive (who later ended........

© Forbes