The US is becoming a 'world champion of inequality' under Donald Trump, says UN poverty envoy

A highly critical UN report has said the United States is fast becoming a "champion of inequality" under Donald Trump.

The document claims Mr Trump's Republican government is undermining efforts to minimise the effects of already prevalent economic inequality.

Written by Professor Philip Alston, of the New York School of Law, it reads: "The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion as the US since the US now has the lowest rate of social mobility of any of the rich countries...

"The persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power. With political will, it could readily be eliminated.

"The foundation stone of American society is democracy, but it is being steadily undermined...

In many cities, homeless persons are effectively criminalised for the situation in which they find themselves.

"Sleeping rough, sitting in public places, panhandling, public urination (in cities that provide almost zero public toilets) and myriad other offences have been devised to attack the ‘blight’ of homelessness."

Mr Alston's final report will be available in the spring of 2018 and will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June of next year.

Republicans declined to meet Mr Alston in Washington. Speaker Paul Ryan in particular said he was "too busy".