President Trump’s golf resort in Miami raked in more than $400,000 as a result of the Republican Governors Association’s hosting two events there in April and June, according to IRS filings published Wednesday.
However, the group says it had been planning to go to the resort since before Trump became a candidate for president.
The Trump Doral Golf Resort received $812 on March 13 for travel and lodging. That trip was likely an initial meeting where an RGA representative decided if the venue was fitting for its upcoming events.
On April 10, the RGA paid the golf resort $117,966. The GOP governors’ group forked up another $289,810 on June 13.
The data was first reported by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.
RGA Communications Director Jon Thompson said the trip was planned more than two years in advance, booked in February 2015, four months before Trump announced his presidential bid.
“For CREW (the organization who reported the IRS data) to infer anything here is lazy on their part and further proof that they are nothing but a Democrat front group,” Thompson told the Washington Examiner.
The organization met in Miami for its 2017 Corporate Policy Summit in May 2017.
The payments are the largest payments a political entity has paid a Trump business since he took office in January. However, the amount is not too far off from last year’s expenditures. In 2016, the highest amount the RGA paid an event venue was $285,616 to the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay.
Trump’s national golf resorts have seen more business from political groups since he entered the Oval Office.
The Republican Party of Virginia paid the Trump National Golf Course in Potomac Falls, Va., nearly $10,000 for an event last month. The joint fundraising committee for Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., held an event that featured Trump at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., last Saturday. MacArthur’s team reported a $15,221 expenditure for “venue rental/catering.”
