White House backs off from holding G-7 at Trump hotel after House says it will investigate

Trump told the world that he’d be hosting the 2020 G-7 at one of his properties, the Trump Doral in Miami. Now, it looks like he’s already walking that back, as his administration says it’s looking at multiple other locations.

Initially, Trump seemed swaggeringly certain that Doral would host the next G-7. In fact, there’s still a tweet on the official White House account announcing the Doral location.

Because he surrounds himself with yes-men who indulge his every thought, including his idea to nuke hurricanes, Trump may have had no idea there would be such pushback on the Doral idea. But it’s the most blatant violation of the emoluments clause yet, as the leaders of the world’s major economies would be required to give vast sums to Trump’s hotel business.

On Wednesday, House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler said his committee would be investigating the Doral deal. Nadler and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) said that making foreign leaders stay at Doral would be “perhaps the first publicly known instance in which foreign governments would be required to pay President Trump’s private businesses in order to conduct business with the United States.”

Cooler heads than Trumps may also be concerned that the police chief of Doral is worried about whether his city could even handle the logistics for such an event. However, they’re not even returning his calls at this point.

Perhaps that’s because the administration now says it is considering locations in Michigan, Colorado, California, and Hawaii. Even White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham seemed to walk the Doral idea back a bit, saying Doral is one of several sites being considered.

The real problem is that Doral is in no way suitable, besides being a massive constitutional violation. Robert Goodwin, who ran the G-8 in 2004, said the idea of holding the G-7 at Doral was “nuts.” He told the Washington Post that since Doral is situated in a town, planners would have to “scour nearby neighborhoods for people seeking to launch a rocket or other airborne attack.” It would also affect travel at the nearby Miami airport, as a no-fly zone would likely be necessary.

There’s also the fact that, right as Trump announced Doral as the location, news broke that the hotel had settled a lawsuit over bedbugs back in 2017.

Hopefully, others manage to talk Trump out of this absurd choice. It will be tough, though, because putting it anywhere other than Doral won’t line his pockets, and that’s what he really cares about.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.