G-7 WILL BE ‘PAR’TISAN POLITICS
Don ‘putts’ ’20 summit at his Fla. club
President Trump will host the 2020 G-7 summit at his golf resort near Miami, the White House announced.
The summit of world leaders will take place at the Trump National Doral Miami from June 10-12, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said at a press conference Thursday.
Trump suggested his golf club for the 2020 summit and the team reviewing a dozen sites found Doral “was the perfect physical location to do this,” Mulvaney said, adding, “It’s almost like they built this facility to host this type of event.”
Mulvaney admitted he was at first “skeptical” of hosting a world event at the president’s property, but he said that Doral would be “dramatically cheaper” than other locations because the resort will host the event “at cost.”
Past summits have been held at Camp David in Maryland; Puerto Rico; Williamsburg, Va., Houston; Denver and Sea Island, Ga.
At the G-7 this year in Biarritz, France, President Trump was already peddling his property for the next summit.
“They love the location of the hotel, they also like the fact is it right next to the airport for convenience,” Trump said.
House Democrats warned at the time that choosing the site could violate both the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments clauses in the Constitution, which guard against the president profiting from the presidency.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that choosing Doral “is among the most brazen examples yet of the president’s corruption. He is exploiting his office and making official US government decisions for his personal financial gain.”
“This is unbelievable,” added Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Executive Director Noah Bookbinder. “Given the potential consequences the president is facing for abusing the presidency for his own gain, we would have thought he would steer clear of blatant corruption at least temporarily; instead he has doubled down on it.”
But Mulvaney said the president won’t profit from the gathering and insisted he certainly doesn’t need any help to boost his brand.
“It’s the most recognizable name in the English language and probably around the world,” he said.
“He’s not making any money off of this, just like he’s not making money from working here,” Mulvaney said, noting that Trump is donating his presidential salary.