As Donald Trump kisses and makes up with his European counterparts – including German Chancellor Angela Merkel…
… at this year’s G-7 Summit in Biarritz, the president has proposed something that will likely send his political opponents into yet another raging fit.
Trump suggested that next year’s summit – which the US is slated to host – be held in Miami, at Trump’s Doral golf resort. Of course, there are drawbacks to holding the event at Doral. Miami in the summer is extremely warm. And let’s not overlook the deluge of complaints about the president’s conflict of interest.
Trump may host G7 from his Doral resort in Miami next year because of its location near airport: “They love the location of the hotel…We haven’t found anything that’s even close to competing with it… Really you can be there in a matter of minutes after you land.” Per WH pool pic.twitter.com/fseFR5uooL
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 26, 2019
When looking around the Miami, Trump said his club was the best option: “We haven’t found anything that could even come close to competing” with Doral, Trump said.
Trump cited the advantages of a global summit in Miami, telling Merkel ahead of their meeting this morning that she would be just a three-minute helicopter ride from the airport to the site.
But the risks of once again running afoul of ethics watchdogs could put the kibosh on the whole thing. Trump is already facing multiple lawsuits over his continued involvement with some of his private businesses, such as the Trump International Hotel in Washington. And of course, hosting an international summit on one of his properties could open him up to a slew of new accusations about mixing his business and official duties.
That said, Doral has the capacity to host an event like the G-7 annual summit. The gold club’s website boasts that it’s only eight miles away from the Miami airport. It’s 800 acres, boasts four golf courses and 643 rooms, plus more than 100,000 square feet of event space – including the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom.
In separate news, Trump said that it was “certainly possible” that he could invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to next year’s summit meeting, which would revert the G-7 back to the G-8. Russia was booted from the group a few years back after the CIA-assisted presidential coup in Ukraine backfired. Trump said ahead of his Sunday morning breakfast meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the notion of inviting Putin to next year’s meeting had certainly been discussed, he said.
“We did discuss it,” he said. “We had a very good discussion on Russia and President Putin, and a lively discussion, but, really, a good one,” he said. “And it’s certainly possible. It’s certainly possible. We’ll see.”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has said that Russia should be reinstated to the group, according to the Hill. “We talk about Russia because I’ve been to numerous G-7 meetings,” Trump said last week during a meeting with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. “I think it’s much more appropriate to have Russia in. So, I could certainly see it being the G-8 again. And if somebody would make that motion, I would certainly be disposed to think about it very favorably.”
Of course, the EU has expressed strong opposition to the notion of inviting Russia back.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ZoI7ha Tyler Durden