Trump's DC hotel seen facing new set of legal challenges

Washington

A US agency ruling affirming US President Donald Trump's right to operate a hotel in a Washington building leased from the government has opened a potential new legal battle over whether the contract grants him benefits in violation of the Constitution.

Under the so-called domestic emoluments clause, the president is prohibited from receiving any compensation from federal or state governments other than his US$400,000 salary. It is being invoked by attorneys and legal scholars who say the ban was breached with the March 23 decision by the General Services Administration (GSA) that the Trump Organization can keep its 60-year lease on the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, transformed through a US$212 million renovation into the Trump International Hotel Washington, DC.