President Trump was forced to abandon his decision to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his private golf club after it became clear the move had alienated Republicans and swiftly become part of the impeachment inquiry that threatens his presidency.
The US president announced in a Saturday night tweet that he would seek an alternative venue to host world leaders next June.
The move represented a rare admission of defeat by Trump, who typically digs in and fights to defend every controversial statement and policy.
Though the initial floating of the idea in August prompted widespread expressions of concern, on Sunday Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said the president was “honestly surprised at the level of pushback” his decision generated this week.
Democrats, meanwhile, continued to blast Trump for awarding the massive government contract to his own company and said they might add the alleged “emoluments” violation to the articles of impeachment they are preparing.
To an incredulous response from his interviewer, Mulvaney said Trump “still considers himself to be in the hospitality business”.
Even in his concession, Trump complained bitterly that he thought he was “doing something very good for our country” by choosing the Trump National Doral, near Miami, to host G7 leaders.
“It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to Miami international airport, has tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have ... its own 50 to 70 unit building,” he tweeted.
The White House has been struggling to explain Trump’s G-7 decision since it was announced Thursday. The president’s opponents quickly seized on it as another example of Trump abusing his office for personal gain. Even many Republicans seemed reluctant to offer political cover.
Therefore, 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,” the president wrote. “We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you!”
On Sunday, Mulvaney expressed regret about how he handled the two issues.
“It’s not lost on me that if we made the decision [to move the G-7] on Thursday, we wouldn’t have had the news conference on Thursday regarding everything else, but that’s fine,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
At the end of the day he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business and he saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world and he wanted to put on the absolute best show, the best visit that he possibly could and he was very comfortable doing that at Doral.
‘… I think it’s the right decision to change, we’ll have to find some place else and my guess is we’ll find someplace else that the media won’t like either for some other reason.”
Pulled up on describing the president of the United States as still “in the hospitality business”, Mulvaney said: “But that’s his background. It’s like I used to be in the real estate business … he wanted to put on a show, to take care of folks, he’s in the hotel business or at least he was before he was president.”
On Friday, White House press officials said Trump continued to support Mulvaney. “Mick Mulvaney’s standing in the White House has not changed,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said.
But the chief of staff may have damaged that standing with his Fox News interview, in which he explained Trump’s desire to host the G-7 at his property by saying the president “still considers himself to be in the hospitality business.”
Trump’s u-turn was welcomed by ethics watchdogs. Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said: “President Trump’s decision to award the G7 conference to his own property was outrageous, corrupt and a constitutional violation.
“It was stunningly corrupt even for a stunningly corrupt administration. His reversal of that decision is a bow to reality, but does not change how astonishing it was that a president ever thought this was appropriate, or that it was something he could get away with.”
The outcome shows that pressure works, even on Trump, Bookbinder added.
On Thursday, Mulvaney had discounted Camp David, the government-owned presidential retreat, as the site for the summit, claiming, “I understand the folks who participated in it hated it and thought it was a miserable place to have the G-7.” He added that it was too small and remote for the international summit.
Mulvaney listed more than half-dozen states visited in the screening process, including Tennessee, North Carolina, Hawaii and Utah. But convention, economic development and tourism officials in several of those states said they were unaware of any visits, and some didn’t even know their state was in the running.
The governor’s office in Hawaii said a “general search” had been done, but didn’t think any specific site had been considered. In Utah, where Mulvaney said two places had made a final list of four sites, the governor’s office said it was not aware any venue there was under serious consideration.
“Could we have put on an excellent G-7 at Doral, absolutely,” Mulvaney said on Fox. “Will we end up putting on an excellent G-7 someplace else? Yes we will.”
Associated Press writer Bernard Condon in New York contributed to this report.
“The president deserves no plaudits for doing the right thing only after public outcry forced him not to do the wrong thing. This was one corrupt conflict of interest. He’s racked up well over 2,000 of them. So we’ll keep fighting. Even late on a Saturday night.”
Trump blamed his G-7 reversal on critics, saying on Twitter that his decision to scrap plans for a summit at the Doral club was “based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility.”
But behind closed doors, several aides and allies said, Trump changed his mind in response to pressure and frustration from his own party.
In the month since Democrats announced their impeachment inquiry, Republicans have struggled to offer a coherent response. With no White House war room, GOP lawmakers have seized on process-related responses.
The backlash came with Trump already facing an impeachment inquiry in the Democratic-led House and a backlash from Republicans over his decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria, abandoning Kurdish allies. A number of congressional investigations are also scrutinising Trump’s finances and potential conflicts of interest stemming from his property business.
The emoluments clause of the US constitution prohibits government officials from receiving salaries, fees or profits from foreign and domestic governments without congressional approval.
Asked on Sunday if Trump understood that his Doral decision “looked lousy”, Mulvaney said: “He knows, he thinks that people think it looks lousy.”
Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) said Friday that Trump should avoid even the appearance of impropriety that comes with holding a global summit at his private property. “I think that would be better if he would not use his hotel for this kind of stuff,” he said.
Rooney, who announced his retirement the day after his comments, also said he was considering backing Trump’s impeachment over his handling of Ukraine policy.
Trump has been closely watching Republicans and their comments about impeachment, according to one administration official. The president was told repeatedly his G-7 decision made it more difficult to keep Senate Republicans in a unified front against impeachment proceedings, the official said. Before he changed course, Trump had waved off concerns from advisers who said hosting world leaders at his club would not play well.
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The US president announced in a Saturday night tweet that he would seek an alternative venue to host world leaders next June.
The move represented a rare admission of defeat by Trump, who typically digs in and fights to defend every controversial statement and policy.
Though the initial floating of the idea in August prompted widespread expressions of concern, on Sunday Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said the president was “honestly surprised at the level of pushback” his decision generated this week.
Democrats, meanwhile, continued to blast Trump for awarding the massive government contract to his own company and said they might add the alleged “emoluments” violation to the articles of impeachment they are preparing.
To an incredulous response from his interviewer, Mulvaney said Trump “still considers himself to be in the hospitality business”.
Even in his concession, Trump complained bitterly that he thought he was “doing something very good for our country” by choosing the Trump National Doral, near Miami, to host G7 leaders.
“It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to Miami international airport, has tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have ... its own 50 to 70 unit building,” he tweeted.
The White House has been struggling to explain Trump’s G-7 decision since it was announced Thursday. The president’s opponents quickly seized on it as another example of Trump abusing his office for personal gain. Even many Republicans seemed reluctant to offer political cover.
Therefore, 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,” the president wrote. “We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you!”
On Sunday, Mulvaney expressed regret about how he handled the two issues.
“It’s not lost on me that if we made the decision [to move the G-7] on Thursday, we wouldn’t have had the news conference on Thursday regarding everything else, but that’s fine,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
At the end of the day he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business and he saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world and he wanted to put on the absolute best show, the best visit that he possibly could and he was very comfortable doing that at Doral.
‘… I think it’s the right decision to change, we’ll have to find some place else and my guess is we’ll find someplace else that the media won’t like either for some other reason.”
Pulled up on describing the president of the United States as still “in the hospitality business”, Mulvaney said: “But that’s his background. It’s like I used to be in the real estate business … he wanted to put on a show, to take care of folks, he’s in the hotel business or at least he was before he was president.”
On Friday, White House press officials said Trump continued to support Mulvaney. “Mick Mulvaney’s standing in the White House has not changed,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said.
But the chief of staff may have damaged that standing with his Fox News interview, in which he explained Trump’s desire to host the G-7 at his property by saying the president “still considers himself to be in the hospitality business.”
Trump’s u-turn was welcomed by ethics watchdogs. Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said: “President Trump’s decision to award the G7 conference to his own property was outrageous, corrupt and a constitutional violation.
“It was stunningly corrupt even for a stunningly corrupt administration. His reversal of that decision is a bow to reality, but does not change how astonishing it was that a president ever thought this was appropriate, or that it was something he could get away with.”
The outcome shows that pressure works, even on Trump, Bookbinder added.
On Thursday, Mulvaney had discounted Camp David, the government-owned presidential retreat, as the site for the summit, claiming, “I understand the folks who participated in it hated it and thought it was a miserable place to have the G-7.” He added that it was too small and remote for the international summit.
Mulvaney listed more than half-dozen states visited in the screening process, including Tennessee, North Carolina, Hawaii and Utah. But convention, economic development and tourism officials in several of those states said they were unaware of any visits, and some didn’t even know their state was in the running.
The governor’s office in Hawaii said a “general search” had been done, but didn’t think any specific site had been considered. In Utah, where Mulvaney said two places had made a final list of four sites, the governor’s office said it was not aware any venue there was under serious consideration.
“Could we have put on an excellent G-7 at Doral, absolutely,” Mulvaney said on Fox. “Will we end up putting on an excellent G-7 someplace else? Yes we will.”
Associated Press writer Bernard Condon in New York contributed to this report.
“The president deserves no plaudits for doing the right thing only after public outcry forced him not to do the wrong thing. This was one corrupt conflict of interest. He’s racked up well over 2,000 of them. So we’ll keep fighting. Even late on a Saturday night.”
Trump blamed his G-7 reversal on critics, saying on Twitter that his decision to scrap plans for a summit at the Doral club was “based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility.”
But behind closed doors, several aides and allies said, Trump changed his mind in response to pressure and frustration from his own party.
In the month since Democrats announced their impeachment inquiry, Republicans have struggled to offer a coherent response. With no White House war room, GOP lawmakers have seized on process-related responses.
The backlash came with Trump already facing an impeachment inquiry in the Democratic-led House and a backlash from Republicans over his decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria, abandoning Kurdish allies. A number of congressional investigations are also scrutinising Trump’s finances and potential conflicts of interest stemming from his property business.
The emoluments clause of the US constitution prohibits government officials from receiving salaries, fees or profits from foreign and domestic governments without congressional approval.
Asked on Sunday if Trump understood that his Doral decision “looked lousy”, Mulvaney said: “He knows, he thinks that people think it looks lousy.”
Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) said Friday that Trump should avoid even the appearance of impropriety that comes with holding a global summit at his private property. “I think that would be better if he would not use his hotel for this kind of stuff,” he said.
Rooney, who announced his retirement the day after his comments, also said he was considering backing Trump’s impeachment over his handling of Ukraine policy.
Trump has been closely watching Republicans and their comments about impeachment, according to one administration official. The president was told repeatedly his G-7 decision made it more difficult to keep Senate Republicans in a unified front against impeachment proceedings, the official said. Before he changed course, Trump had waved off concerns from advisers who said hosting world leaders at his club would not play well.
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