Danielle McLaughlin
Imagine this. A Twilight Zone version of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, reimagined as a hotelier and business owner. New Zealand is chosen to host the 2020 Apec meeting of world leaders – and, through an opaque selection process, the Beehive announces that Apec will be held at the prime minister’s struggling Auckland hotel and golf course, Ardern National Moral.
Apec will fully occupy the hotel for a week in June, a time when Moral is typically sleepy, with only 30 per cent of rooms occupied.
Promising that Ardern won’t make a profit from it, but making no disclosures about what charging Apec ‘‘at cost’’ looks like, the hotel undergoes hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of security upgrades – at taxpayer expense – and anticipates millions in revenue.
New Zealand’s laws and principles – its ‘‘Constitution’’, if you will – expressly prohibit any prime minister from receiving anything of value from a foreigner. But you love Ardern – hell, New Zealand has a ‘‘Wellbeing Budget’’ now. And this lady had a baby in office!
But something doesn’t feel right. Surely there was another hotel somewhere – anywhere else – in New Zealand that could have hosted Apec? Isn’t the prime minister profiting from her political position? Isn’t she taking money from foreigners, in violation of constitutional norms? Isn’t this pocket-filling selfdealing right out in the open?
Switch PM Ardern for President Donald Trump, and Moral for Doral, and you are no longer in The Twilight Zone.
This week the White House announced that the 2020 G7 summit would be held at Trump National Doral, the president’s ailing golf club just outside Miami.
According to the Miami Herald, local authorities – including the mayor, the police, and the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau (who generally spearhead such massive efforts) – were not involved in any kind of vetting process.
Reportedly, White House ‘‘event planners’’ screened a dozen potential sites around the country. The mayor was informed about four months ago that the city of Doral was in the running. He got a call 45 minutes before the White House announcement.
The decision is particularly perverse considering that the president is currently mounting a full-blown attack against Democrat Joe Biden for alleged conflicts of interest related to his son Hunter’s board position with a Ukrainian energy company while Biden senior ran Ukraine policy.
Trump retains full ownership of his business empire, including Doral. Not only will Doral (and ergo, the president) be paid by foreign governments for food and lodging, Trump Doral (and the Trump brand more broadly) will garner immense publicity during the summit, and the brand will profit from its status as host of the G7 for years to come.
The US Constitution expressly prohibits the president and other top federal officials from accepting payments or gifts from foreign governments without the permission of Congress. Called the emoluments clause, it goes all the way back to the Founding Fathers’ fears that the US might one day again come under the influence of another nation.
It also seeks to protect the country against a selfdealing president who would take money or gifts from foreigners who may seek to buy influence.
We have seen this movie before, and recently.
Last month, US Vice-President Mike Pence visited Ireland and stayed at Trump Doonbeg, which the president had ‘‘recommended’’. Pence ‘‘commuted’’ across the country and back for meetings in Dublin. That’s a 450-kilometre round trip, or the equivalent of staying in Whakatane for meetings in Auckland.
USASpending.gov, which tracks where the federal government spends taxpayer money, reported US$1.4 million in accommodation and ‘‘hotel services’’ for the US delegation to Biarritz for this year’s G7 summit. Multiply that by seven, and you’ve got close to $10m in revenue.
That said, whether it’s $1m or $10m, and whether there is any ‘‘profit’’ involved, is not the point. If holding the G7 at a Trump property doesn’t violate the emoluments clause of the constitution, then nothing does.
Trump once said that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and he wouldn’t lose any voters. While awarding the G7 to his own property isn’t assault with a deadly weapon, it’s a brazen assault on the US Constitution and the president’s oath to protect and defend it. It remains to be seen whether he will lose any voters because of it.
Danielle McLaughlin is the Sunday Star-Times’ US correspondent. She is a lawyer, author, and political and legal commentator, appearing frequently on US and New Zealand TV and radio. She is also an ambassador for #ChampionWomen, which aims to encourage respectful, diverse, and thoughtful conversations. Follow Danielle on Twitter at @MsDMcLaughlin.