Former US President Donald Trump has been sued by a Chinese-American civil rights group for calling Covid-19 the “China virus”. The complaint, filed in a federal court in New York on Thursday by the Chinese Americans Civil Rights Coalition (CACRC), alleged that Trump’s use of that phrase and other similar racist words are not proven as the origin of the coronavirus is not known. Trump’s “extreme and disgraceful behaviour was ignored all over the pandemic cause such conduct would make Chinese Americans suffer emotional distress”, stated the suit.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to increasing violence against Asian Americans, a decent part of the Americans of Chinese descent, which activists have blamed on Trump’s expression. The suit further claimed that Trump continued to use those racist words to refer to the coronavirus even as he knew that the virus didn’t necessarily come from China.

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“The truth matters, words have consequences especially from those in powerful and influential positions,” the complaint said. “Trump intentionally repeated those defamatory words to serve his own personal and political interest with an astonishing level of actual malice and negligence, hence severely injuring the Chinese-Asian Americans communities in the process.” The CACRC is asking that $1 be paid to every Asian American and Pacific Islander living in the US as an apology, which would total $22.9 million.