This weekend, President Donald Trump abruptly announced that he wouldn’t be hosting the next year’s G7 summit of world leaders at his Miami-area resort after all, which Trump blamed on “Crazed and Irrational Hostility” from members of the media and Democrats. To be clear, that “hostility” was over the blatant corruption of a president’s administration simply awarding a major government contract to his own business because he felt like it. Now, in the wake of Trump reversing his hosting decision, 2020 Democratic presidential candidates including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Obama administration official Julián Castro are insisting that the corruption problems remain.
Warren — who’s one of the leading candidates in the race — shared on Twitter:
‘The G-7 may no longer be at Trump National Doral, but that won’t stop foreign nations from dumping money into Donald Trump’s pockets by spending at his hotels. And it won’t stop Trump from rewarding Mar-a-Lago members with ambassadorships. Donald Trump is corruption in the flesh—we must call it out, and I have a plan to fight back.’
Donald Trump is corruption in the flesh—we must call it out, and I have a plan to fight back: https://t.co/k32fZwonHP
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 20, 2019
It’s true — there remain many, many issues with money flowing through the president’s business into his pockets even while he’s in office. He never even attempted to disconnect himself financially from the Trump Organization, meaning were the G7 to be held at his Miami resort, he’d be making money off the backs of world leaders like this is all a game to see who can grift the most. In the absence of that Doral debacle, he’s still earning money every time a special interest stays at one of his hotels.
Julián Castro added:
‘Trying to be a complete crook of a politician didn’t quite work out for him this time, but I’m sure he’s not done trying. We need integrity back in the Oval Office.’
Indeed — it’s not as though Trump actually admitted to any kind of wrongdoing in his explanation for cancelling the plans he apparently personally came up with to host the G7 summit at Trump Doral. Rather, yet again, he desperately clung to blaming anyone else he could find for the problems that he himself made.
In the wake of the cancellation, Trump says other sites including the presidential retreat Camp David will be considered. Trump has at least comparatively under-utilized Camp David while in office, although he did have the bright idea to invite the Taliban to the site for “peace talks” literally days before the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Those plans fell through.
Trump has spent most of his time away from D.C. at a property branded with his name, letting American taxpayers foot the bill for many, many weekends out on the golf course. For just under one-third of his presidency, he’s spent at least part of the day at a property with his own name on it. Just under one-fourth of his overall time in office has been spent at a golf course — and even as Trump complains about costs associated with everything from military excursions overseas to domestic protection efforts, he acknowledges no problem in taxpayers paying for all of that.
Check out Twitter’s response…
