--- title: Donald Trump Conflicts of Interest Concern Not Unprecedented description: The point has been made that "no one was so concerned" about Vice President Nelson Rockefeller's fortune, but TIME's archive shows otherwise canonical: https://time.com/4631550/donald-trump-nelson-rockefeller-history-conflicts-interest/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-11T17:40:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T12:13:35.000Z article:section: History og:title: Actually, Nelson Rockefeller's Fortune Was Scrutinized Too og:description: Nelson Rockefeller's wealth did cause concerns when he became VP og:url: https://time.com/4631550/donald-trump-nelson-rockefeller-history-conflicts-interest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba1ebc324a3b463a/6988b51e0b72e378996ec3b1/trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Trump Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Actually, Nelson Rockefeller's Fortune Was Scrutinized Too twitter:description: Nelson Rockefeller's wealth did cause concerns when he became VP twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba1ebc324a3b463a/6988b51e0b72e378996ec3b1/trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Actually, Nelson Rockefeller's Fortune Was Scrutinized Too > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:13 PM UTCPublished: Jan 11, 2017 5:40 PM UTC  US President-elect Donald Trump answers journalists' questions during a press conference on Jan. 11, 2017 in New York, N.Y. US President-elect Donald Trump answers journalists' questions during a press conference on Jan. 11, 2017 in New York, N.Y.Don Emmert—AFP/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:13 PM UTCPublished: Jan 11, 2017 5:40 PM UTC In a [press conference](http://time.com/4631349/donald-trump-news-conference-russia/?xid=homepage) on Wednesday, President-elect Trump brought attorney Sheri Dillon forward to speak to the point of how he will avoid [potential conflicts of interest ](http://time.com/4578431/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interest-list/)between his business interests and his role as President of the United States. His business empire is “not dissimilar to the fortunes of Nelson Rockefeller when he became Vice President,” she noted, “but at that time no one was so concerned.” In fact, though Rockefeller’s wealth did not ultimately prove an obstacle for his service as Vice President under Gerald Ford, TIME’s archives show that plenty of people were concerned that his fortunes might pose a problem. Rockefeller’s arrival in the office of Vice President came about in an unusual way, after Gerald Ford became President following Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974\. That circumstance left the vice presidency open, and Ford [selected](http://time.com/vault/issue/1974-09-02/page/24/) Rockefeller, a former New York Governor, to fill the job. Because of those circumstances, Rockefeller had to testify before the Senate before he could be confirmed as VP. As TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1974-10-07/page/33/), the influence of his money was a major concern among the Senators present: --- > “” --- [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) In particular, gifts that Rockefeller had given over the years were seen as coming “perilously close to violating New York State’s conflict-of-interest laws,” as TIME [put it](http://time.com/vault/issue/1974-10-21/page/22/) in October of 1974. Rockefeller was eventually given the Congressional O.K.—though his wealth was the [primary concern ](http://time.com/vault/issue/1974-12-23/spread/12/)among those who did not support the confirmation. He became Ford’s Vice-President, a position he served in until two years before his 1979 death. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4631550/donald-trump-nelson-rockefeller-history-conflicts-interest/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4631550/donald-trump-nelson-rockefeller-history-conflicts-interest/"},"headline":"Actually, Nelson Rockefeller's Fortune Was Scrutinized Too","datePublished":"2017-01-11T17:40:06.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T12:13:35.000Z","description":"It's not the case that \"no one was so concerned\" about Vice President Nelson Rockefeller's fortune","url":"https://time.com/4631550/donald-trump-nelson-rockefeller-history-conflicts-interest/","keywords":["politics","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba1ebc324a3b463a/6988b51e0b72e378996ec3b1/trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba1ebc324a3b463a/6988b51e0b72e378996ec3b1/trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Conference","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-PRESSER","creditText":"Don Emmert—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4631550/donald-trump-nelson-rockefeller-history-conflicts-interest/","name":"Actually, Nelson Rockefeller's Fortune Was Scrutinized Too"}}]}] ```