Trump revives G7 Miami Doral resort controversy in morning tweet
How ironic it is that Donald Trump seems to be taking a page from the handbook of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
When Warren was famously silenced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) while trying to read into the congressional record a critical letter from Coretta Scott King while opposing the nomination of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, McConnell justified his refusal to allow Warren to continue speaking with the excuse that, despite being told to stop, “nevertheless, she persisted.”
The phrase became one of Warren’s best campaign slogans, and “Persist!” bumper stickers began to appear on the vehicles of her supporters across the country.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s assumption of the mantle of persistence is over one of his own corrupt obsessions — the use of his own Trump Doral Golf Resort near Miami as the location for next year’s G7 global summit meeting.
The public uproar over the self-profiting choice of the president’s own property as the G7 destination eventually forced Trump to abandon the plan, but not without considerable grumbling over what a beautiful and perfect resort the property with steeply declining revenues is and decrying his victimhood over the rejection of his offer of free rent for the attendees — a cost that would be more than repaid by the free marketing he’d receive for the resort and the taxpayer-paid security upgrades the property would require.
With his Tweet this morning, Trump proved that, despite the rejection of his self-dealing scheme, nevertheless, he would persist in mourning the idea and lamenting the fact that he may have to fall back on the non-gilded presidential retreat at Camp David as the location for the G7 summit.
Too bad we didn’t have the G-7 here. I offered to pick up the entire cost, would have saved at least $35,000,000 for the USA. Best location. Very stupid people thought I would gain. Wrong! Looking at Camp David. Will announce soon. https://t.co/8RF7IHVyxN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2019
In addition to displaying a frustrated child’s whine over not getting his way — calling the people who disagreed with his choice stupid and wrong just as a distressed toddler would — Trump also managed to unethically use the power of his office to hype one of his own resorts with the retweet of the promotional post from the Trump Golf Twitter account.
One would think that a man being sued over the receipt of illegal emoluments from the properties that he refused to divest upon taking office would grasp by this point the problematic nature of such naked self-dealing. But once a huckster and a conman, always a huckster and a conman, one must suppose.
There was no purpose to Trump’s revival of the controversy over the use of the Doral resort as the G7 location in his tweet this morning except as an excuse to promote his business. At least it was a rare recent tweet not attacking Democrats for having the temerity to impeach him for his bribery and extortion in the Ukraine scandal. For that alone, it was a welcome respite.
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