President-elect Donald Trump Says He Will Leave His Businesses 'in Total' to Focus on Presidency

President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter Wednesday morning to say that he will leave his "great business in total" to focus on the presidency, an apparent response to concerns about likely conflicts of interests between his businesses around the world and his role as the country's chief executive.

The New York businessman said he will hold a formal press conference on Dec. 15 to detail his plan, which marks a significant difference from months of declining any details on whether he would take measures to distance himself from his business endeavors. It remains unclear whether he will sell his companies, put them in a blind trust or hand them over to his children.

"I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my ... great business in total in order to full focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! While I am not mandated to .... do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses. Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task!" Trump posted in a series of tweets.

Reince Priebus, the incoming White House chief of staff, declined to say on Wednesday whether or not the plan is to give Trump's children control of the president-elect's businesses.

"I'm not ready to reveal any of that," Priebus said on MSNBC, noting that the existing laws did not take into consideration somebody like Trump.

"This is the first president we've had at least in modern history that's had so many successful businesses and so many diverse areas across the country and in many cases retail and hospitality business that is dependent on people's business. So, it's not the easiest thing to work out," said Priebus. "You should know that he’s got the best people in America working on it. And I think what you see in those tweets is a person at the top that understands and is willing and showing the American people that he's working hard on it and he’s taking it seriously."

However, later on Wednesday, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said that, in fact, Trump's children would take over his business operations.

Appearing on Fox News, Miller said the president-elect is "completely getting out of the business, hand it over to the family," adding, "He's so focused on taking over as president. That is his only focus, the only thing he's worried on."

Echoing Priebus, Miller said, "It takes a little bit of time to get everything in place. I think one of the important things to keep in mind is for someone who's been so successful, who has so many different deals, so many properties and so many different investments, it takes a while to move that along. So it really goes to part of the reason, I think, why he won, because he's not a politician. Look, it's complicated to get that done right."

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons