A western Massachusetts lawyer is helping launch a campaign to get President-elect Donald Trump to divest from his business interests before taking office.
Jennifer Taub of Northampton teaches at Vermont Law School. Earlier this week, she started the Twitter hashtag ‘#Divest Donald’ as part of a growing call for Trump to sell off his holdings or put them in a trust.
Taub said the U.S. Constitution bars a president from accepting any payment from a foreign leader or state – and that includes the cost of a hotel room, licensing fees to use the Trump brand name, and many other reported foreign dealings — unless Congress consents.
Taub also said Trump would be highly distracted overseeing several hundred businesses while running the country.
“So my goal is to raise awareness and public outrage so that our representatives in Congress set a limit for this president,” Taub said.
Trump himself tweeted that his business interests are already well known and that only “the crooked media” considers them a problem.