US election: Clinton seizes offensive, as woes mount for Trump

Donald Trump’s presidential hopes suffered a punishing new setback Monday as authorities clamped down on his charitable foundation, while Hillary Clinton seized the offensive to brand the Republican an unscrupulous businessman. With just five weeks to go before the November 8 election, the billionaire Trump is struggling to regain his footing against a surging Clinton and climb out of one of the darkest periods of his White House campaign. Already weakened by damaging revelations about his taxes, Trump was hit with an order by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that the Donald J. Trump foundation must “cease and desist from soliciting contributions” in New York. The notice informed the charity that it had engaged in fundraising activities that were not permitted under the law because it had not been registered with state authorities. With Team Trump on the defensive after leaked documents suggested he may have paid no income tax for two decades, Democrat Clinton rounded on him as a real estate bully who cares little for his fellow countrymen. “While millions of American families, including mine and yours, were working hard paying our fair share, it seems he was contributing nothing to our nation. Imagine that,” a fired up Clinton said in Toledo, Ohio. “He has been ‘dissing’ America in this whole campaign,” she charged, riding high on a surge in polling carried out after the bruising first presidential debate. The pair face off in their second showdown on Sunday. Vice presidential nominees Mike Pence, the Republican governor of Indiana, and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia take the stage Tuesday for their only debate of the campaign cycle.