TRUMP TO HOST THE G7 AT HIS DORAL GOLF RESORT NEXT YEAR
Donald Trump will be hosting next year’s Group of Seven economic summit of developed world leaders at one of his own properties, the Trump National Doral golf resort near Miami, the White House said on Thursday.
White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters the summit would take place there on June 10-12, 2020, calling it ‘the perfect physical location to do this.’
Trump had floated the possibility during his visit to France for this year’s G7 meeting in August, touting the resort’s size and its proximity to the Miami airport, though he insisted he would not directly profit from the choice.
Mulvaney told reporters in the White House press briefing room that it would be ‘vastly cheaper’ than other places and the Trump Organization was charging ‘cost.’
Mulvaney said that it was in fact Trump who had suggested adding his own resort to the shortlist.
He said that a group of staff had met with the president to discuss a shortlist for the G7 venues and Trump said: ‘What about Doral?’ Mulvaney said: ‘You know what that’s not the craziest idea we have ever heard.’ ‘It makes perfect sense,’ he said. But asked by Dailymail. com if the White House would reveal a paper trail of how it decided to select Doral, Mulvaney said: ‘If you want to see how we did this, the answer is no.’
The chief of staff said that he knew in advance of the decision that critics would ask if it was a breach of the emoluments clause which bans the president from taking ‘any present, emolument or office’ from a foreign state. Mulvaney said that because the president would not ‘profit,’ the move was perfectly legal. ‘there’s no issue here on him profiting from this in any way, shape or form,’ Mulvaney said. ‘We’re going to have it there, and there’s going to be folks who will never get over the fact that it’s a Trump property.we get that, but we’re still going there. ‘The president knows exactly that he’s going to get these questions and he’s simply saying that’s fine - I’m willing to take that.’
Mulvaney said that he knew people would see it as ‘a huge branding opportunity,’ but claimed that the president’s brand is already‘ the biggest in the world.’ When the United States has hosted the summit before, it has been held in Puerto Rico; Williamsburg, Virginia; Houston; Denver; Sea Island, Georgia; and Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.
Mulvaney said that there had been an initial list of 12 venues, of which 10 were visited by an ‘advance team.’ They were in states including California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan, North Carolina, tennessee and Utah.