A day after Donald Trump proposed his Miami-area golf resort as the venue for next year’s G7 summit, he vented on a tweet about a ‘false and nasty rumor’ that the 643-room playground for the rich has a bedbug infestation.
‘No bedbugs at Doral,’ the president insisted.
‘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 had devoted part of Monday’s press conference in France to a sales pitch for his Trump National Doral Miami Golf Resort, boasting about its ‘series of magnificent buildings. We call them bungalows. They each hold from 50 to 70 very luxurious rooms with magnificent views.’
‘We have incredible conference rooms, incredible restaurants. It’s like, it’s like such a natural,’ he said, taking a beat to brag about the ample parking.
It didn’t take political Twitter long to recall a 2016 lawsuit filed by a New Jersey insurance executive who claimed bedbugs at a Trump Doral villa left him with bites and welts in March 2016.
President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that his Trump National Doral Miami Golf Resort is not a hotbed of bedbugs, defending the country club against rumors that spread after he announced that the property was a likely venue for next year’s G7 summit
Trump launched into a brief infomercial for his Doral country club during a press conference Monday in France, boasting about the property’s villas, conference rooms and ample parking
New Jersey insurance executive Eric Linder sued Trump Doral, saying he woke up on a March 2016 morning with dozens of bedbug bites; this photo was part of the evidence in his lawsuit, which was settled out of court
Eric Linder sued for a minimum of $15,000 four months later, and reached a confidential settlement in 2017.
Linder, 66, told the New York Daily News that he was upset by Trump’s tweeted deflection.
‘I’m outraged by it,’ he said.
Linder wrote in his lawsuit that ‘[a]s a direct and proximate result of the [sic] being bit by bed bugs, the Plaintiff suffered bodily injury and resulting pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, aggravation and/or acceleration of pre-existing condition(s), loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, expense of hospitalization, medical and nursing care and treatment.’
‘The losses are either permanent or continuing in nature and the Plaintiff will suffer the losses in the future,’ he added. ‘Further, the Plaintiff incurred the costs of alternative hotel expenses and for replacing clothing, as well as other personal effects, which were subjected to the bed bud [sic] infestation.’
Trump Doral responded in the court record that Linder had ‘conducted himself so carelessly and negligently that his conduct was the sole proximate cause or contributing cause’ of the insect bites.
Ron Klain, a Democratic political operative who once served as chief of staff to then-Vice President Joe Biden, was among the first to dredge up the lawsuit on Monday.
‘Expect turn out [sic] for next year’s G-7 to be sparse if Trump holds it at Doral,’ he wrote, citing a January 2017 Miami Herald brief about the lawsuit’s resolution.
Anti-Trump author Seth Abramson chimed in that the 2020 meeting would be ‘the “G-7 Million”—seven world leaders and the 6,999,993 bedbugs at Trump Doral.’
Bedbugs (scientifically called ‘Cimex lectularius’) are a blood-eating species that attack people as they sleep at night
Linder said he stayed in a room at the Jack Nicklaus villa on the Doral grounds when he because a feast for the voracious insects
Trump Doral is a sprawling golf-focused club near Miami International Airport
Democratic poltical organizer Holly Figueroa O’Reilly, who boasts online that the president once blocked her on Twitter, called the situation ‘beyond parody.’
‘Doral has had an infestation of bedbugs, a crazed shooter, and is bleeding money because Trump’s brand is for s**t,’ she wrote, ‘but sure, let’s host the world’s leaders in this dump, and oh, while we’re at it, make it the G-8 by adding Russia.’
Liberal SiriusXM radio host Michelangelo Signorile snarked on Tuesday about Trump’s complaint that reporters had fabricated a story about his desire to deploy nuclear weapons against hurricanes: ‘But did you consider nuclear weapons for the bedbugs at your Doral resort?’
Trump insisted Monday that he was not trying to monetize the presidency: ‘No, not at all.’
The 643-room Doral resort saw a 69 per cent slide in revenues during 2017, according to The Washington Post.
The paper attributed its conclusions to documents Trump’s real estate business filed with Miami-Dade County officials in a bid to lower the Doral property’s tax bill.
The Trump Organization countered that its 2018 was stronger, and blamed hurricanes and public fears of the Zika virus for an underperforming year.
The president said officials would soon release information to the public about his team’s search for a G7 venue, which involved a dozen possible locations. He said representatives from the U.S. military and Secret Service were part of the delegation.
‘They went to places all over the country,’ he told reporters, ‘and they came back and they said, “This is where we would like to be”.’
Hosting the G7 at Doral would provide advantages ‘because of the way it is set up,’ he added. ‘Each country can have their own villa or their own bungalow.’
‘The bungalows … they have a lot of units in them so I think it just works out well,’ he said.
President Donald Trump lapsed into a sales pitch for one of his golf resorts on Monday in the middle of a press conference ending the annual G7 leaders summit; he will host the event in 2020 and may use the Trump National Doral golf resort as the venue
Welcome to Trump land: Donald Trump said that his Doral course was a good choice for the G7
Clubhouse: This is the clubhouse which would be the most likely place for Trump to hold the G7 if he goes ahead with using Doral as a venue
Trump’s brief infomercial included Doral’s proximity to Miami International Airport, and a claim that some rival resorts ‘were two hours from an airport, some were four hours from – I mean, they were so far away!’
The president also contended that his own financial interest in the Doral property is a non-issue, claiming that the presidency will end up costing him between $3 billion and $5 billion in lost earnings and missed business opportunities.
‘I used to get a lot of money to make speeches. Now I give speeches all the time. You know what I get? Zippo. And that’s good,’ he said.
‘In my opinion I’m not going to make any money,’ Trump said of a potential G7 summit at his Florida resort. ‘I don’t want to make money. I don’t care about making money.’
The Trump Organization writes a check to the U.S. Treasury each year representing the amount of profit its internal audits determine that the company earns from foreign government business.
Eric Trump, the company’s executive vice president, has told DailyMail.com that he actively seeks to avoid doing business with other countries officials because it typically displaces other customers whose business contribute to profits.