Washington - Donald Trump is facing a lawsuit alleging his businesses are accepting payments from foreign governments in violation of the US Constitution. The moment the new president was sworn in on Friday he was in breach because he failed to divest his interests in the Trump business empire, according to the suit. The legal action, by the non-profit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, will ask a judge to forbid Mr Trump from accepting the payments. The new Commander-in-Chief does business with countries like China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, the lawyers’ group noted in a statement. “When Trump the president sits down to negotiate trade deals with these countries, the American people will have no way of knowing whether he will also be thinking about the profits of Trump the businessman,” it said. The group - which includes former Bush White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter - said that because Trump-owned buildings take in rent, room rentals and other payments from foreign governments, the president has breached the ‘Emoluments Clause’ in the nation’s Constitution. The clause reads: ‘No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.’ Although the president will not be unduly worried about the suit, it is likely to be the first in a wave of legal challenges over the Trump family’s business interests and conflicts of interest they may pose to America’s new leader. The group insisted it was forced to act because Mr Trump hadn’t sufficiently distanced himself from his business before he moved into the White House.(FA)
