Trump and the Foreign Emoluments Clause

From the beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump has been bedeviled by questions surrounding the legality of money received from governments or foreign actors during his term of office. There are two relevant clauses in the Constitution:

• Article 2, Section 1, Clause 7 specifies that the President may not receive money from any state or federal government aside from his salary.
• Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 specifies that no members of government may be compensated by a foreign state without the approval of Congress.

On October 18, Trump’s lawyers will be defending him against a claim of violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.

Congressional Democrats have sued Trump for a failure to allow Congress to weigh in on foreign payments and implications under the Foreign Emoluments Clause.