Former federal prosecutor and current CNN legal analyst Shan Wu said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump has only himself to blame for the big legal headaches being caused by his hotel in Washington, D.C. that is located just blocks away from the White House.
Wu was brought onto CNN to explain the significance of the lawsuit filed against Trump that claims his D.C. hotel is a violation of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, which states that the president may not "accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
The lawsuit argues that Trump is violating this clause if states such as Saudi Arabia feel they can get special treatment from his administration if they regularly send their officials to stay at Trump's hotels as a kind of financial gift to him.
"As with so many things regarding the president, it's basically a mess of his own making," Wu explained. "Trump has all these businesses that, unlike any other president, he has not put into a blind trust, and so now this is a question of, let's take a look at his interests, can it be that you're profiting from being president when foreign dignitaries come and are staying at your hotel?"
Wu also said that Trump has helped raise suspicions even further by refusing to release his tax returns.
"It's something that really could be avoided if the president was really more transparent about his finances," he said.
Watch the video below.