Donald Trump's golf resort in Miami will host next year's G7 summit, White House announces

President Donald Trump, who is to host next year's G7 summit, already has a venue in mind - his own golf course in Miami.
AFP/Getty Images
Rebecca Speare-Cole17 October 2019

Donald Trump's Doral golf resort in Miami will host next year's G7 summit, the White House has announced.

It comes despite government watchdogs criticising suggestions that the summit should be held at one of the president's resorts.

Mr Trump was accused of trying to make money from the G7 summit when he appeared to promote the resort to world leaders as the ideal location at this year's summit in Biarritz in August.

He praised the resort as being close to the airport with plenty of hotel room, separate buildings for every delegation and top facilities for the media.

Mr Trump was accused of trying to make money from the G7 summit 
REUTERS

"We have a series of magnificent buildings... very luxurious rooms," Mr Trump told reporters. "We have incredible conference rooms, incredible restaurants, it's like - it's like such a natural."

But government ethics watchdogs say Mr Trump's proposal to bring world leaders to his resort would be a conflict of interest, because they would have no choice but to spend money at his property.

"It's ethics violation squared," said Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law in St Louis.

"This is him making it perfectly mandatory that they stay at his resort," added Larry Noble, a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission.

Trump said the Doral resort near Miami was an ideal location for the annual gathering of the world's richest democracies.
AFP/Getty Images

However, a team looking at the sites reported that it was "the perfect physical location to do this," acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said.

He said about a dozen potential sites were narrowed to a list of four finalists before Doral was selected.

"It's almost like they built this facility to host this type of event," Mr Mulvaney said.

Holding the event there would also be dramatically cheaper than other sites, he said. He added: "There's no issue here on him profiting from this in any way, shape or form."

Trump National Doral is seen in Miami, Florida.
AFP/Getty Images

At the Biarritz news conference, Mr Trump spoke as if the idea of making money off the summit never entered his mind.

He said other people were pushing Doral as a venue, not just him.

He said the Secret Service and the military have been visiting various sites and appear to have formed a bit of consensus already.

"They went to places all over the country and they came back and they said, 'This is where we'd like to be,'" Mr Trump said. "It's not about me. It's about getting the right location."

He added: "I'm not going to make any money. I don't want to make money. I don't care about making money."

Mr Trump's pitch came as several lawsuits wind their way through court accusing the president of violating the US Constitution's emoluments clause, which bans gifts from foreign governments.

It also came as Mr Trump's financial disclosure also shows he owes a lot of money to Deutsche Bank for the property, which helped him buy it in 2012.

As of the end of last year, Mr Trump had two mortgages on the resort, one for more than $50 million, the other for as much as $25 million.

A Trump Organisation consultant told the Miami-Dade Value Adjustment Board last year that the property was "severely underperforming," according to The Washington Post.

Another sign of trouble is the long list of former Doral members who quit the club years ago but are still waiting for their initial deposits back.

New members have to join first for old ones to get refunds, but that isn't happening, according to Doral member Peter Brooke.

Mr Brooke said a G7 summit would bring in "considerable income" for the club, citing the need to accommodate Secret Service, guards and other staff that must accompany each foreign government delegation.

"They would have to house all of them at the various lodges, not to mention food and more staff," he said.

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