(Photo of Trump, from Politico.com, is by Mandel Ngan / Getty Images.)Trump thought he had a brilliant idea -- give himself a big government contract by holding next year's G7 meeting at his Doral Golf Club. The club, which is having financial problems, needed a shot in the arm and Trump thought that would do it. The problem is that it looked like the definition of corruption to everyone else.
There was significant blowback after it was announced, and Trump finally caved and said the meeting will not be at his facility. He said the search for a different place will begin.
Trump tried to place the blame on Democrats and the press, but that was just him trying to save face. The truth is that the public, and even his own defenders in the Republican Party, didn't like the idea. The corruption was just too obvious this time.
Trump had claimed that he was going to rent the facility to the government "at cost". No one believed that either, since he refused to say just what would be charged. Trump has averaged over 13 lies every day since being sworn in, and most thought that was probably just one more lie.
Here's how The Washington Post reported Trump's change of plans:
President Trump announced abruptly Saturday night that he would no longer host next year’s Group of Seven summit at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Florida, bowing to criticism for having selected his own property as the venue for a major diplomatic event. Trump was buffeted by two straight days of allegations of self-dealing and exasperation from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including some Republican allies who said the selection of Doral as the venue for a gathering of world leaders was indefensible.
The decision — while it lasted — was an unprecedented one in modern American politics: The president awarded a huge contract to himself. The White House promoted Doral as the single best venue in the United States to host the G-7 summit in June, and the meeting would have brought thousands of guests in the offseason to a resort that is struggling financially. For months, Trump had touted Doral as an ideal venue to host visiting dignitaries, and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney made the choice official at a news conference Thursday. But in a rare reversal in the face of public pressure for a president who prides himself in rarely folding or admitting failure, Trump said Saturday that he and his administration would search for a new location. He attributed the concession to “Irrational Hostility” from Democrats as well as the media, although the revolt among some Republicans may well have been the trigger. . . . Mulvaney’s announcement sparked immediate criticism — not only from Democrats but also from some Republican lawmakers who ordinarily defend the president’s actions. “I think it’s not a good thing to have the appearance — you know, in the law, there’s a canon that says, ‘Avoid the appearance of impropriety,’ ” said Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.). “I think that would be better if he would not use his hotel for this kind of stuff.” Doral has been struggling in recent years. The property saw its net operating income decline 69 percent from 2015 to 2017, according to documents the Trump Organization filed with Miami-Dade County. Hosting the G-7 summit would have been a major boon for the company, filling the hotel in June, a month when the resort is typically less than 40 percent full. Tourism in South Florida generally is not as high in the summer as it is in the winter, in part because of the region’s heat and humidity.
