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“It’s almost like they built this facility to host this kind of event,” the acting White house chief of staff said, dismissing questions over the decency of the President choosing his own hotel.

Katie Rogers and Eric Lipton

WASHINGTON-President trump has decided to hold a Group of 7 meeting next June at Trump National Doral near Miami, Mick Mulvaney, the President’s acting chief of staff, said Thursday, a decision that raised immediate questions about whether it was in his interest to choose one of his own properties for a diplomatic event.

Mr. Mulvaney said the President considered “political criticism” in choosing the resort. But he said Mr. trump chose it anyway because administration officials reviewed hotels across the country, and concluded that Trump National Doral was “far and away, far and away, the best physical facility for this meeting.”

“It’s almost like they built this facility to host this kind of event,” Mr. Mulvaney told reporters, quoting what he said an unnamed official told him during the planning process. And he rejected any suggestion that the President would profit from the choice.

Mr Mulvaney said the hotel would deliver on the summit “at cost.” “I think the President has pretty much made it very clear since he got here that he’s not profiting from being here,” he said. “He’s not interested in profit from being here.”

But house Democrats said the President’s choice of his own hotel was just the latest example of Mr. trump using his office to advance his business interests.

“The administration’s announcement that President trump’s Doral Miami resort will be the site of the next G7 summit is one of the most brazen examples of presidential corruption,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler of new York, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee tasked with reviewing impeachment articles against the President.

“He is exploiting his office and making official decisions of the US government for his personal financial gain,” Mr Nadler said. “The emoluments clause of the Constitution exists to prevent exactly this kind of corruption.”

He added that the Committee would continue to ” press for answers to our previous inquiries about the G7 selection process.”

“The Constitution is clear,” MS Pelosi wrote on Twitter, referring to the remuneration clause. “The President cannot accept gifts or payments from foreign governments. No one is above the law.”

Legal experts said holding a Group of 7 summit in Doral could violate the Constitution in two ways.

First, the Constitution prohibits the President from accepting a gift or payment from a foreign government source, which is technically called a foreign reward. And secondly, the President is prohibited from accepting any payments from the Federal government that exceed his salary.

Holding a summit there would effectively force government officials to pay trump’s family to stay at his resort, said Deepak Gupta, a constitutional lawyer who is already involved in two lawsuits accusing Mr. trump of violating the Constitution by accepting foreign government payments at his hotels.

“Apparently, President Donald trump no longer sees fit to even pretend he’s limited by law or the Constitution,” said Robert Weisman, President of Public citizen, a nonprofit group that has tracked millions of dollars in political and government spending at trump hotels and resorts around the world since 2017. “He does not want to hide his contempt for the rule of law.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said Thursday night that Democrats in Congress who have one of the pending lawsuits against Mr. trump will now review it to include the President’s plan to have the Group of 7 meet in Doral.

Doral is run by the Trump Organization, run on a daily basis by the President’s sons Eric and Donald trump Jr. since their father became President. But Mr. trump has both frequently and contributed to his properties throughout his time in the White house.

In Washington, Mr. trump regularly meets with his supporters for dinner at the trump International Hotel, which has become the most popular political fundraiser in the capital. And he has spent a total of 308 days since 2017 in one of his properties, or about a third of his days in office.

Over all, Mr Trump has made visits to at least 13 of his family’s revenue-generating properties since he was sworn in, including golf courses in Ireland and Scotland, according to a tally by The New York Times. The most frequent venue is the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, followed by the trump National Golf clubs in new Jersey and Virginia.

Mr. trump’s use of his real estate has drawn criticism, as have other Federal government employees who have stayed in Trump-owned hotels in the United States and abroad.

Questions have been raised about the Pentagon spending $ 184,000 over the past two years to pay for the air force to send dozens of crews to make stops at an airport in Scotland to stay at the trump Turnberry resort in Scotland.

And during a trip to Ireland in September, Vice President Mike Pence was criticized for staying at the trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg-a resort that was nearly an hour’s drive from where air force Two held at Shannon airport. The President suggested that Mr. Pence stay there, according to aides to Mr. Pence.

Mr. Mulvaney said the President made a similar offer when White house officials were discussing seats for the Group of 7.

“We sat around one night,” Mr. Mulvaney said. “We had a list and he says,’ what about Doral? And it was like, that’s — that’s not the craziest idea .”

“There are many options in the choice of locations,” said Michelle Milligan, President of the society of government specialist meetings. “We’re a pretty big country.”

But the President made it no secret where he wanted to hold the summit. At this year’s Group of 7 summit, held in August in Biarritz in southern France, Mr. trump suggested that the resort would be a “great place” to host next year’s meeting.

“It has huge areas, many hundreds of acres, so we can handle what’s going on,” Mr. trump said. “People really like it and plus it has buildings that have 50 to 70 units. And so each delegation can have its own building.”

The President has been an active promoter of the hotel in the past. When the PGA Tour announced in 2016, when Mr. trump was running for President, that it was moving its annual Golf tournament, which has drawn international attention to Doral for more than five decades, to Mexico city, it reacted angrily.

“They’re moving it to Mexico city, which by the way, I hope they have kidnapping insurance,” Mr. trump said in an interview with fox.

But Doral has struggled financially since the trump family bought out the resort after going bankrupt in 2012, paying $ 150 million for the property. More than $ 100 million in loans to Finance the project came from Deutsche Bank.

Financial documents obtained by The Times as part of tax appeals filed by the Trump Organization showed the property lost $2.4 million in 2014. The trump organization does not disclose profits over the past few years.

Still, Doral as of last year was the biggest cash asset, among hotels, Golf courses, office buildings and other properties owned by the trump family. In 2018, revenue was $75.96 million on $ 1.76 million in other revenues. But both of these numbers are just total revenue, not profit.

Local officials did not get one – on-one about the decision, and said holding a summit at the resort would be difficult given the resort’s proximity to the area’s main roads, including two that are directly adjacent to the resort and may need to be closed to ensure security.

“This is the middle of the Dade County metro area,” said ray Valdez, a spokesman for the Doral police Department. “It will require a logistical feat. But with careful planning, I’m sure we can pull it off .”

Juan Carlos Bermudez, the mayor of Doral, noted the logistical feat but said Thursday that he would leave issues related to potential conflicts of interest for “Democrats and Republicans and scientists” to discuss.

“We are honored that it is being held here,” Mr. Bermudez said. “And the world will be able to see what Doral and South Florida are about.”

Katie Rogers is the White house correspondent for the Washington Bureau, covering the trump administration’s cultural impact on the nation’s capital and beyond. @katierogers

Eric Lipton is a Washington investigative journalist. A three-time Pulitzer prize winner, he previously worked for the Washington post and the Hartford Courant. @EricLiptonNYT

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