Trump’s proposed venue for G7 summit sparks ethics debate

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump says his Doral golf resort in Miami is the ideal place for the next G7 Summit, sparking a debate on ethics and also moving quickly to dismiss rumours there were bedbugs at the complex.

The US president was eager to say why he believed the resort would be the perfect venue for world leaders to thrash out deals and get to know eachother. The complex is close to the airport, has plenty of hotel rooms, separate buildings for every delegation and even top facilities for the media and the president has made no secret of his desire to host the gathering there.

Government ethics watchdogs, however, have long railed against the perils of Trump earning money off the presidency and hosting foreign leaders at his properties.

But they say Trump’s proposal to bring world leaders to his Miami-area resort takes the conflict of interest to a whole new level because, unlike stays in Washington, 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.

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

Trump went on Twitter on Tuesday to ridicule suggestions there were bedbugs at his proposed summit venue. The president tweeted: “No bedbugs at Doral. The Radical Left Democrats, upon hearing that the perfectly located (for the next G-7) Doral National Miami was under consideration for the next G-7, spread that false and nasty rumor. Not nice!”

Trump’s proposal at the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France, portrayed the Doral resort in the most glowing terms, even though he said later he was more interested in logistics for the meeting than making money.