In October, he had been named a special envoy to the US by President Duterte. In 2017, Antonio is expected to complete building a US$150-million tower in the Makati financial district—a 57-storey symbol of affluence and capitalism, which promotes itself with the slogan 'Live Above the Rest.' Now, his partner on the project, Donald Trump, had just been elected president of the US.

After the election, Antonio flew to New York for a private meeting at the Trump Tower with the president-elect’s children, who have been involved in the Makati project from the onset, as have Antonio’s children.

The Trumps and Antonios have other ventures in the works, including Trump-branded resorts in the Philippines, according to Antonio’s son Robbie.

“We will continue to give you products that you can enjoy and be proud of,” the elder Antonio, one of the richest men in the Philippines, told the 500 friends, employees and customers gathered for his star-studded Thanksgiving Day celebration.

Ambassador Antonio’s combination of jobs—he is a business partner with Trump, while also representing the Philippines in its relationship with the US and the president-elect—is hardly inconsequential, given some of the weighty issues on the diplomatic table.

Among them, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has called for “a separation” from the US and has urged US troops to exit the country in two years’ time.

His war on drugs has resulted in the summary killings of thousands of suspected criminals without trial, prompting criticism from the Obama administration. For his part, Duterte has made it clear that he does not like the US meddling in his country’s domestic affairs.

Michael H. Fuchs, who helped oversee US relations with the Philippines as the deputy assistant secretary of state until early this year, said he was deeply troubled by Trump’s overlapping priorities, particularly given the lengthy list of globally significant issues in play with the Philippines.

These include planned joint military exercises in the South China Sea, the fight against militant Islamic groups based in southern Philippines and the human rights abuses taking place.

“What we already have is a blurring of the lines between official and business activities,” Fuchs said.

“The biggest gray area may not be a President Trump himself advocating for favors for the Trump Organization. It’s the diplomats and career officers who will feel the need to perhaps not do things that will harm the Trump Organization’s interests. It is seriously disturbing,” he added.

In the interview at the celebration on Thursday evening, however, Robbie Antonio said he had little doubt of his father’s priorities, emphasizing that he will put the Philippines’ interests above those of his company. 

“It is for the good of the country now,” he said.

Even so, according to former US state department officials, the question remains just what kind of a stand the incoming US administration will take as Trump and his family balance their personal and financial ties with foreign policy demands.

Situations like these have prompted former officials from both countries to question if the US reaction to events around the world could potentially be shaded, if only slightly, by the Trump family’s financial ties with foreign players.

They are also concerned that in some countries those connections could compromise the US efforts to criticize the corrupt intermingling of state power with vast business enterprises controlled by the political elite.

“It is uncharted territory, really in the history of the republic, as we have never had a president with such an empire both in the US and overseas,” said Michael J. Green, who had served on the National Security Council and at the Department of Defense.

The globe is dotted with such potential conflicts of interest. Trump’s companies have business operations in at least 20 countries, with a particular focus on the developing world, including outposts in nations, such as India, Indonesia and Uruguay, according to a New York Times analysis of his presidential campaign's financial disclosures.

What is more, the true extent of Trump’s global financial entanglements is unclear, since he has refused to release his tax returns and has not made public a list of his lenders.

In an interview with The Times on Tuesday, Trump boasted again about the global reach of his business—and his family’s ability to keep it running after he takes office.

“I’ve built a very great company, and it’s a big company, and it’s all over the world,” Trump said, adding later: “I don’t care about my company. It doesn’t matter. My kids run it.”

A review by The Times of these business dealings identified a menu of the kinds of complications that could create a running source of controversy for Trump, as well as tensions between his priorities as president and the needs and objectives of his companies.

In Brazil, for instance, the beach front Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro—one of Trump’s several branding deals, in which he does not have an equity stake —is part of a broad investigation by a federal prosecutor who is examining whether illicit commissions and bribes resulted in apparent favoritism by two pension funds that invested in the project.

Several of Trump’s real estate ventures in India—where he has more projects underway than in any location outside North America—are being built through companies with family ties to India’s most important political party.

This makes it more likely that Indian government officials will do special favors benefiting Trump’s projects, including pressuring state-owned banks to extend favorable loans.

In Ireland and Scotland, executives from Trump’s golf courses have been waging two separate battles with the local officials, and the most recent centers on the Trump Organization’s plans to build a flood-prevention sea wall at the course on the Irish coast.

Some environmentalists believe that the wall could destroy an endangered snail’s habitat—a dispute that will soon involve the president of the US.

In Turkey, officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a religiously conservative Muslim, demanded that Trump’s name be removed from Trump Towers in Istanbul after he called for a ban on Muslims entering the US.

More recently, after Trump came to the defense of Erdogan—suggesting that he had the right to crack down harshly on dissidents after a failed coup—the calls for action against Trump Towers have stopped, fueling worries that Trump’s policies toward Turkey might be shaped by his commercial interests.

Trump has acknowledged a conflict of interest in Turkey. “I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul,” he said during a radio interview last year. 

“It’s a tremendously successful job. It’s called Trump Towers—two towers, instead of one. Not the usual one. It’s two,” he added.

These tangled ties already have some members of Congress—including at least one Republican representative—calling on Trump to provide more information on his international operations, or perhaps for a congressional inquiry into them.

“You rightly criticized Hillary for the Clinton Foundation,” Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican, said in a Twitter message on Monday. 

“If you have contracts with foreign governments, it’s certainly a big deal, too. #DrainTheSwamp,” he pointed out.

David J. Kramer, who served as US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor during the Bush administration, said Trump’s financial entanglements could undermine decades of efforts by Democratic and Republican presidents to promote government transparency—and to use the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to stop contractors from paying bribes to secure government work abroad.

Even if Trump and his family seek no special advantages from foreign governments, officials overseas may feel compelled to help the Trump family by, say, accelerating building permits or pushing more business to one of the new president’s hotels or golf courses, according to several former state department officials.

“The working assumption on behalf of all these foreign government officials will be that there is an advantage to doing business with the Trump organization,” Fuchs said.

“They will think it will ingratiate themselves with the Trump administration. And this will significantly complicate the US foreign policy and our relationships around the world,” he added.

At the same time, Fuchs said, US diplomats in countries where Trump’s companies operate, fearful of a rebuke from Washington, may be reluctant to take steps that could frustrate business partners or political allies.

Another question is, who will be responsible for security at the Trump Towers around the world, especially in the Middle East, which terrorism experts say may now become more appealing targets as symbols of US capitalism built in the name of the president?

What is clear is that there has been very little division, in the weeks since the election, between Trump’s business interests and his transition effort, with the president-elect or his family greeting real estate partners from India and the Philippines in his office and Trump raising concerns about his golf course in Scotland with a prominent British politician.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who is in charge of planning and development of the Trump Organization’s global network of hotels, has joined in conversations with at least three world leaders—of Turkey, Argentina and Japan—having access that could help her expand the brand worldwide.

Trump, in the interview with The Times on Tuesday, acknowledged that his move to the Oval Office could help enrich his family.

He cited his new hotel a few blocks from the White House, which the Trump Organization has urged diplomats to consider patronizing while in town to meet the president or his team.

The Federal law does not prevent Trump from taking actions that could benefit him and his family financially; the president is exempt from most conflict-of-interest laws.

However, the Constitution, through what is called the emoluments clause, appears to prohibit Trump from taking payments or gifts from a foreign government entity, a standard that some legal experts say he may violate by renting space in the Trump Tower in New York to the Bank of China or if he hosts foreign diplomats in one of his hotels.

“I mean it could be that occupancy at that hotel will be because, psychologically, occupancy at that hotel will be probably a more valuable asset now than it was before, OK? The brand is certainly a hotter brand than it was before. I can’t help that, but I don’t care,” Trump said, adding, “The only thing that matters to me is running our country.”

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