Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said that “under no circumstances” should President Trump be allowed to host next year’s G-7 summit at Trump National Doral golf resort in Florida, arguing that it would be an “egregious example of corruption.”
Trump said earlier Monday in France at the current G-7 summit that he had proposed his resort as the site for the next summit and that he saw no conflict of interest in the possibility.
Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said he would be making inquiries to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about the president’s proposal since the department handles setting up the event. “Trump is using the office to line his own pockets at the expense of the American people and our standing in the world,” the senator said. “Requiring our allies to spend money at the president’s hotel to attend the G-7 would be an insult to them and a violation of our Constitution’s emoluments clause.”
The G-7 is group of major economies comprising Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S., that meet once a year and take turns hosting the event.
“They love the location of the hotel, they also like the fact is it right next to the airport for convenience. And it is Miami, Doral, Miami, so it is a great area,” Trump said Monday, adding, “We haven’t had anything that could even come close to competing with it, especially when you look at the location.”
The president said that 12 sites for the meeting were looked at and while some were good, they all had various problems, such as being too far from the airport.
Trump dismissed the suggestion that hosting the summit at his resort would benefit him financially, saying it had cost him “billions” already to accept the job of president. “I used to get a lot of money to make speeches for money. Now I make speeches all of the time. You know what I get? Zippo. And that’s good,” he said.
