TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
President Donald Trump announced on Twitter late Saturday that he would no longer host next year’s G7 summit at his Doral resort in Miami.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced late Saturday that he will not use his Doral golf resort in Miami for the G-7 summit next year, reversing course after the decision drew swift condemnation from Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
“Based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020,” Trump posted on Twitter shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday. “We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately.”
In announcing the Doral pick just days earlier, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney described the resort as “the best place” to host the leaders of the world’s most industrialized economies.
Mulvaney tried to head off criticism about the propriety of using one of the president’s properties, saying it was well suited for the summit.
Republicans expressed relief at the announcement.
Former White House press Secretary Ari Fleischer simply tweeted: “Good call.”
Bradley Moss, a national security lawyer, tweeted: “Wow, the pressure from within the Republican caucus must have been immense for him to so quickly back off.”
Several analysts said the sudden reversal reflects Trump’s concerns about holding Republican support as impeachment efforts continue.
Matt Mackowiak, a GOP consultant, said the reason for the backtrack was clear: “Loss of Republican support and he never does anything at cost.”
Mulvaney initially had dismissed Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.
President Barack Obama held the meeting there in 2012.
Where the White House could look next: The other finalists for G-7 were two sites in Utah and one in Hawaii, Mulvaney said on Thursday. Mulvaney said the White House advance team surveyed 10 locations in eight states: California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.
Democrats denounced the Doral pick as nothing more than self-dealing that involves the nation’s foreign policy.
They pointed out Trump is making the move as his campaign hammers away on the notion that Democratic rival Joe Biden’s son Hunter profited from his father’s role as vice president during the Obama administration.
“This is corruption, plain and simple,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the Democratic presidential candidates, tweeted at the time.
Democrats weren’t alone. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told reporters it was not appropriate to use taxpayer dollars at a Trump resort.
“You have to go out and try to defend him. Well, I don’t know if I can do that!” Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, told The Washington Post.
The G-7 will take place June 10-12, less than five months before the U.S. presidential election in which Trump seeks a second term.
The G-7 is an annual gathering of leaders from the world’s largest industrialized economies: the United States, Italy, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany.