The president and vice president are free from following conflict of interest rules that apply to almost all government employees. That's the way the founding fathers wanted it.

"You never wanted to have the risk that a Chief Executive of the U.S. would have a conflict and not be able to decide something of pressing national or international urgency," said Norman Eisen, a former ethics czar in the Obama White House, and a current fellow at the Brookings Institution.

But Donald Trump owns all or part of 564 companies, according to his latest federal financial disclosure report to the Federal Election Commission. The report also states that he personally owes or personally guaranteed more than $500 million in debt loaned from ten different creditors. His business interests could owe millions more to creditors the public has no legal right to see.

"It is an ethicist's nightmare to contemplate him in the Oval Office," added Eisen.

Trump relies heavily on borrowed cash to buy buildings and other properties. His casino and hotel properties went bankrupt up to five times. At the Taj Mahal casino his bondholders and other lenders lost $1 billion. Ostensibly he will bring this love hate relationship with debt, to the White House.

"Real Estate developers borrow 80-90 percent of the money used to purchase their real estate and a lot of that risk is absorbed by the banks and the bond holders," said Richard Painter, professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and former chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush.

Presidents are ultimately responsible for appointing leaders to regulate the banking and finance industries. It might be difficult for someone who owes so much money to creditors to remain impartial. 

"It’s going to be somewhat difficult to ask [a President Trump] to lead the charge to regulate the banking industry and discourage excessive loose credit," Painter said.

Conflicts of interest can have serious consequences. History has shown that even the founding fathers and first Presidents put their own business interests ahead of ethics and the good of the nation.

"Washington, Jefferson, most of our early presidents were from Virginia and they had large plantations, and they were making lots of money off of slave labor," said Painter.

To minimize at least the appearance of impropriety, Trump could appoint someone else to deal with his businesses while he's in office. Since the 1960s, most Presidents have put their key assets in a blind trust, run by an independent officer.

Bill Clinton used such a trust when he was in the White House, as did Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Lyndon Johnson. President Obama didn’t need one because his investments are so transparent – mostly savings accounts and widely traded mutual funds. 

Another step to transparency would be for Trump to release his tax returns. Presidential candidates have done so since the Watergate scandal forced President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974. His Vice President, Spiro Agnew, also resigned over tax evasion charges.