Trump chooses own resort for next year’s G-7 summit
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has awarded the 2020 G-7 summit of world leaders to his own private company, scheduling the summit for June at his Trump Doral golf resort outside Miami, the White House announced Thursday.
That decision is without precedent i n modern American history: The president used his public office to direct a massive contract to himself. The Group of Seven summit draws hundreds of diplomats, journalists and security personnel, as well as a worldwide spotlight.
Trump bought Doral, a golf resort, in 2012.
The announcement to chose the president’s own club as the site of an i nternational summit comes as Trump is in the midst of twin crises that are consuming his presidency – a hasty and confused American retreat in Syria, and a growing impeachment inquiry in the House.
“Doral was far and away the best physical facility for this meeting,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said in announcing the decision. He said the administration examined 10 sites before choosing this one. Mulvaney quoted an anonymous siteselection official as saying, “It’s almost like they built this facility to host this type of event.”
The G-7 summit rotates among sites chosen by the seven member countries and the European Union. The last time it was held in the U.S., in 2012, President Barack Obama held it at the government-owned retreat at Camp David in Maryland. In 2004, President George W. Bush held it at the exclusive, isolated resort of Sea Island, Georgia.
This year, Trump had hinted repeatedly that he intended to award the event to himself. At the G-7 summit in August in Biarritz, France, Trump said his aides had examined other sites and told him that Doral is the best. The site is set among office parks, in an inland area near the Miami airport.
“They went to places all over the country, and they came back and they said, ‘This is where we’d like to be,’ ” Trump said then. “It’s not about me. It’s about getting the right location.” He particularly praised the club’s ample parking.
Doral is a major part of Trump’s portfolio: It provides more revenue to him than any other hotel or golf club, and he took out $125 million in loans to buy it.
But in recent years the keystone property has fallen into steep decline, with profits falling 69% in three years. An expert hired by the Trump Organization blamed t he drop on Trump’s politicized brand.
Trump’s properties have hosted U.S. government officials before, and the company says it does not seek to make a profit off that business.
But even so, Trump’s properties can be expensive. At his Mar-a-Lago Club, for instance, the government paid Trump’s company $546 per night for each staffer staying in the club’s guest rooms, and another $1,000 for a single night of drinking by White House aides at one of Mara-Lago’s bars.
In this case, Trump’s son Eric Trump, who helps run the Trump Organization while his father is president, recently said that if Doral was the choice, Trump would not overcharge his own government.
Trump has visited his own properties more than 100 times as president. Those visits have resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in revenue for his businesses.