Bowing to pressure from Democrats, the media, and even some Republicans, Donald Trump announced on Twitter yesterday that he had decided not to use his own property, the Doral Resort, to host the G-7 summit in June.
….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. We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2019
I thought I was doing something very good for our Country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 Leaders. It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, has tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2019
…..its own 50 to 70 unit building. Would set up better than other alternatives. I announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democrat Partners went CRAZY!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2019
Trump had said that he was willing to hold the summit at Doral at cost, which would have been a significant expenditure on his part given the enormous resources that would have been devoted to security arrangements and logistics. But Democrats weren’t buying it. They introduced the THUG Act to block funding for a summit at Doral.
Democratic Reps. Lois Frankel (Fla.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Steve Cohen (Tenn.) introduced the Trump’s Heist Undermines the G-7 (THUG) Act after acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters Thursday that the Trump resort near Miami will host the annual summit of world leaders June 10-12.
A companion bill is being introduced in the Senate by Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.).
“Mr. Trump is unashamed of his corruption,” Frankel said in a statement. “He is abusing the office of the Presidency and violating law by directing millions of dollars of American and foreign money to his family enterprises by holding an important meeting of world leaders at his Doral resort.”
“His contempt for the Constitution and American people seems boundless in profiting from his office through payments from foreign governments,” Blumenthal added. “Our Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves. Congress must act to stop this plain craven abuse of power and corruption.”
Trump took his desire to troll his haters a little too far this time, or he genuinely doesn’t see the conflict between his public duties and personal business.
Or is it a towering arrogance that has manifested itself over the last several months as his enemies begin a serious push to impeach him? Trump is used to the rough and tumble of the real estate business where if you get pushed, you push back twice as hard. But Trump has also developed a sense of invincibility over these last few months, as Democrats have swung and missed time and again at trying to bring him down. As he once said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.”
That kind of arrogance is extraordinarily dangerous.
Not even a drunken Chicago alderman would rub naked political clout in the faces of voters before an election. It follows, then, that President Trump is acting worse than a drunken alderman.
That’s what this is, of course. Trump wants to hold the summit at Doral because, quite simply, he can. The reaction of the opposition, his supporters, or the voters is inconsequential. He is exercising his power because he can exercise power, which is the very definition of clout.
Trump’s defense of all this sleaze is simple — and shocking. Because I do all this in the open and don’t try to hide anything, it’s not corrupt.
President Donald Trump’s defensive strategy against charges of corruption and self-dealing — which led to the impeachment inquiry — is both novel and incredibly hubristic, even for Trump. The president seems to believe that the best way to overcome charges of corruption and push back against criticism of his unscrupulous conduct is to commit even more blatant acts of corruption, as if doing it right out in the open makes it legal and morally defensible. It couldn’t possibly be corrupt or criminal, the reasoning seems to be, when it is carried out in plain sight.
So far, Trump hasn’t done anything blatantly impeachable. That’s why the Republican party and his supporters are still mostly with him. But given his arrogant attitude toward his duties and the voters, that could very well change in the near future.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member