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In Donald Trump's press conference on 2016-01-11, he and his lawyer pointed to thousands of sheets of paper in manila folders and identified them as only a portion of the documents he is signing to remove himself an an officer of the Trump organization. I guess the best way to frame the question is: are those papers genuinely what's needed to be signed by him?

enter image description here (Photo from CNN twitter feed)

Sklivvz
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AfterWorkGuinness
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    @Sklivvz: I am troubled by the edit. Trump may need to sign a similar pile of papers, but these particular folders might just be a stage prop. How could we know? – Oddthinking Jan 12 '17 at 23:02
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    As OP I disagree with the edit. It does not reflect the question I had – AfterWorkGuinness Jan 12 '17 at 23:03
  • @AfterWorkGuinness your question was off topic though. I tried to save it. "Realistic" is an opinion. – Sklivvz Jan 12 '17 at 23:14
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    Im asking about the quantity of the documents. Perhaps law is a better board? – AfterWorkGuinness Jan 12 '17 at 23:15
  • @AfterWorkGuinness not sure what kind of answer you expect exactly, but maybe they can speculate about it. Unfortunately we can't. – Sklivvz Jan 12 '17 at 23:17
  • Sorry, but why does it matter? Reminds me of that joke "Shakespeare's plays were not written by Shakespeare, but by another person of the same name". – Benjol Jan 13 '17 at 10:01
  • Completely different question. –  Jan 13 '17 at 12:24
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    Have you ever bought a house? I ask because my experience is that just buying a single house requires multiple dozens of signatures and initials. I have absolutely no trouble imagining that the contracts to legally sever control for such a large business empire would be hundreds of times more complicated than buying one house. – ReasonablySkeptical Jan 13 '17 at 14:26
  • What I found humerous (as pointed out by the Daily Show), none of these folders had any sort of labels. I am more inclined to think this was all just a hoax. – JasonR Jan 13 '17 at 22:29
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    I am inclined to agree w/ @JasonR. There's no way to know, but the folders and papers are unlabeled and all very very neat, which is generally not the case with papers that have had multiple people (lawyers, accountants, advisors) looking through. Besides, Trump really liked to pose in pictures with big piles of documents, so there's precedent (i.e. http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8345157c669e201b7c8200156970b-pi) – rougon Jan 14 '17 at 00:21
  • @JasonR As much as I dislike *that* person, there's a difference between a hoax and a stage prop that alludes to something real. I wouldn't be at all surprised if divesting your personal finances from that of a massively complex business that you've been running for a very long time required a ton of paperwork and signatures. – Rob Moir Jan 18 '17 at 15:11
  • @RobMoir maybe "hoax" was too strong a word. Perhaps "just a big show" is a better characterization? While it may require a "ton" of paperwork, I am pretty sure what was on the table was a gross overstatement. I've seen paperwork for a Samsung acquisition of a bunch of US companies (so all the paperwork had to be done twice, once in English, once in Hangul), and it was nowhere near that (and it totaled about $6B). – JasonR Jan 18 '17 at 15:17
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    @JasonR I think "just a big show" is more accurate - hoax does mean something very specifically different I would say. I feel kinda queasy now that I feel like I've defended that person somehow :-( – Rob Moir Jan 18 '17 at 15:19
  • It's 2017, not 2016. – Wildcard Jan 23 '17 at 08:35

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Trump's business dealings are much more complicated than divesting from 1 company. From Wikipedia

The Trump Organization (formerly Elizabeth Trump & Son) is an American privately owned international conglomerate based in Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It comprises President-elect Donald Trump's business ventures and investments. From 1971–2017 Trump ran the company as chairman and president. After being elected U.S. president, Trump stated that his two eldest sons - Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump (longtime company executive vice presidents) - would take over management of the company as part of a controlling trust.

The Trump Organization has interests in real estate development, investing, brokerage, sales and marketing, and property management. The company owns, operates, invests, and develops residential real estate, hotels, resorts, residential towers, and golf courses in different countries, as well as owning several hundred thousand square feet (several hectares) of prime Manhattan real estate. It lists involvement in 515 subsidiaries and entities with 264 of them bearing Trump's name and another 54 including his initials.

That's a little less than 2 pages per legal entity, assuming 1000 pages. In all likelihood it's more.

Community
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    By my understanding, Wikipedia isn't treated as a reliable source for Skeptics. – JAB Jan 13 '17 at 02:20
  • @JAB, I understand that. But I think a weak source is better than no source at all. It may help others to find more info by focusing on X or Y topic. – Dastardly Jan 13 '17 at 08:17
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    This is both a weak source and personal calculations on top of that. There is no reason to presume that Trump had to personally sign paperwork for every company in the Trump Organization. It would be a poorly run organization if it's configured with no intermediary levels between trump and the businesses which would remove the need for him to personally sign away control of each one. – dsollen Jan 13 '17 at 13:48