George Washington did it, so Donald Trump can too.
That’s the Justice Department’s take on why the 45th president isn’t violating the U.S. Constitution by accepting payments for goods and services from foreign governments without congressional approval.
The foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution doesn’t apply to fair-market commercial transactions, such as hotel bills, golf club fees, licensing payments and office rent, the Justice department argued Friday in a filing. The government is asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit brought by a watchdog group that claims Trump’s business dealings violate the Constitution.
Andy Grewal: “Chunk of it seems to have been lifted from my article https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2902391 … and then massaged to change wording 
.”
.”Update: More on the issue of business transactions and emoluments from Seth Tillman, from which it appears the government also borrowed.