A lawsuit against Donald Trump’s business ties heats up

By S.M. | NEW YORK

DONALD TRUMP is finding that it pays to be president. Since last November, prices at his properties have surged: the cheapest cocktail at the Trump International Hotel in Washington is now $24, up from $16. The initiation fee at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida—where he hosts foreign dignitaries—quietly doubled to $200,000 in the weeks before his inauguration. Mr Trump visits his own hotels and golf courses about twice a week, augmenting their visibility. He is vacationing this month at Trump National Bedminster, a golf club in New Jersey where he interviewed potential cabinet members after the election. A new “director of diplomatic sales” has steered Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian bookings away from rival DC hotels to the Trump International. In the words of Mr Trump’s son Eric, the family brand is now ”the hottest it has ever been”.

That may be great news for the Trump Organisation, but America’s constitution seems to frown on a president using his office for personal enrichment at the hands of foreign leaders. In recent months, three lawsuits have been filed accusing Mr Trump of violating conflicts-of-interest standards enshrined in the constitution’s two so-called “emoluments” clauses. According to one rule, presidents may not take any payment but their salary from the federal government or the states. And Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 bars all federal officials from receiving “any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever” from a foreign state, unless Congress gives its consent. Maryland and the District of Columbia sued Mr Trump in June, followed closely by nearly 200 members of Congress, who say the president needs their approval before he takes any foreign money.