Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday that Donald Trump was genuinely surprised when there was push back against the U.S. potentially hosting the 2020 G7 summit at his Doral resort in Miami, Florida.
‘At the end of the day he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business,’ The acting chief of staff told Fox News Sunday, ‘and he saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world and he wanted to put on the absolute best show, the best visit that he possibly could, and he was very comfortable doing that at Doral.’
‘I think we were all surprised at the level of pushback,’ he continued. ‘I think it’s the right decision to change and we’ll have to find someplace else and my guess is we’ll find someplace else the media won’t like for another reason.’
When host Chris Wallace pushed back that the president was no longer in hospitality and was now serving as president, Mulvaney dismissed it.
‘Yeah, but it’s his background,’ Mulvaney said, adding, ‘he’s in the hotel business, or at least he was before he was president.’
Mick Mulvaney said, ‘At the end of the day he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business,’ when attempting to explain why Donald Trump was so surprised there was so much pushback on his proposal to hold the 2020 G7 summit at his Florida resort
This week, the White House confirmed that Trump’s Doral resort near Miami, Florida was on the short list to be the location for the 2020 G7 summit, which the U.S. is hosting
‘I think we were all surprised at the level of pushback,’ Mulvaney said of the bipartisian criticism over the potential conflicts of interest with the president the event at one of his properties
The White House announced Thursday that Trump sought to host next year’s Group of Seven economic summit of developed world leaders at the Trump National Doral golf resort.
Mulvaney told reporters at the time that the summit would take place at the Trump property on June 10-12, 2020, calling it ‘the perfect physical location to do this.’
He also told reporters in the White House press briefing room Thursday that the move would be ‘vastly cheaper’ than other places and that there should be no concerns that Trump would personally profit from the summit.
‘There’s no issue here on him profiting from this in any way, shape or form,’ Mulvaney said.
The announcement received widespread backlash with claims of potential conflicts of interest between the president and his personal business.
Saturday morning, just two days after announcing the summit would be held at the Doral resort, Trump announced that this would not longer be the location for the U.S. hosting world leaders next year.
He blamed the ‘media and democrat crazed and irrational hostility’ for the quick reversal – even though he received criticism even from within his own party.
Trump argued Doral would be ‘vastly cheaper’ than any other location and Mulvaney said the president would not be ‘profiting from this in any way, shape or form’
‘We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you!’ Trump said, bemoaning that the White House would ‘no longer consider’ his branded property for the G7.
Trump’s U-turn came just 30 minutes after he tweeted his reasoning for wanting to host the summit on his own grounds.
‘I thought I was doing something very good for our Country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 Leaders,’ he tweeted before the reversal.
‘It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, has tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have its own 50 to 70 unit building. Would set up better than other alternatives,’ he continued.
‘I announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democrat Partners went CRAZY!’ he concluded.
Mulvaney said that he and Trump discussed the move and the bipartisan hit the president took for the decision to put Doral on the short list.
‘He was honestly surprised at the level of pushback,’ Mulvaney said of the president.