WASHINGTON-President Donald trump will host world leaders at the G-7 economic summit in 2020 at his Doral Golf resort in Miami, the White house said Thursday, despite condemnation from lawmakers and critics of the President who said he was again using public duties for personal gain.

“I was skeptical,” White house acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged in making the statement. “That’s why I was so surprised when my team called back” to say the Doral facility was the best option for the event.

“It’s not the only place,” Mulvaney said. “This is the best place.”  

Democrats and other trump critics have denounced the decision as nothing short of self-governing, which is tied to the country’s foreign policy.

“This is corruption, plain and simple,” tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. one of the presidential candidates from the Democratic party.

House Democrats have said they will try to make Doral an issue as part of the congressional debate on government spending.

The House Appropriations Committee said two provisions in a spending bill would “prevent the President from spending federal funds at Trump properties.”

Democrats will push for these items as the Senate debates the spending plan, the appropriations Committee said in a statement.

Senate Republicans will have to choose whether to confront this blatant corruption or once again allow President Trump to violate basic norms and profit from the presidency, ” the statement said.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., Chairman of the House judiciary Committee, said he would investigate what he called a “brazen” example yet of how the President violated a provision in the U.S. Constitution.

“He exploits his office and makes official decisions of the U.S. government for his personal financial gain,” Nadler said.

According to Mulvaney, the “Big seven” will be held June 10-12, 2020, less than five months before trump will be in a second term in the us presidential election.

The announcement came as trump traveled to Texas for a series of events on a busy day of news that included impeachment testimony on Capitol hill.

Trump announced his plans for Doral while attending the last G-7 summit two months ago in France, calling his club in Miami a ” great place.”

“It has huge areas, many hundreds of acres, so we can handle what’s going on,” trump said during an August 26 meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  “It has buildings that have 50 to 70 units in them, so each delegation can have its own building.”

The group of seven is an annual meeting of the leaders of the world’s largest industrialized countries: the United States, Italy, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. The last of them took place in August in the resort town of Biarritz in southwestern France. 

Last month the Democrats of the house of representatives said that they will investigate trump’s plans to hold a “seven” in Doral.

“Trump’s personal financial interests clearly shape decisions about the official activities of the U.S. government,” Nadler and Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said in a joint statement., Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties.

The move comes as the trump campaign has been claiming that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, hunter Biden, benefited from Biden’s role as Vice President by serving on the Board of Directors of a Ukrainian company. At the time, Biden was the Obama administration’s point person on Ukraine.  

‘They love the location’: Trump says his Florida golf resort may host next year’s G-7 summit

Doral’s plan violates a constitutional ban on remuneration, lawmakers said, calling it “perhaps the first well-known case in which foreign governments would be required to pay President trump’s private businesses in order to conduct business with the United States.”

The group of 7 is a group of industrialized countries that meet to discuss joint responses to trends in the world economy. Created during the oil crisis of the 1970s, the “Seven” held its first summit near Paris in 1975. (The group was also known as “Group 8” when Russia was a temporary member).

The members of the Group 7 change of duty location. The last two times the United States hosted, it was in the presidential election years.

In 2012, President Barack Obama originally planned to hold a summit in his hometown of Chicago, but later switched the venue to camp David. In 2004, President George W. Bush held an event on sea island, Georgia.

Trump has his critics. Doral membership fees are reportedly higher than $ 50,000, and some former members say they have waited for years for their deposits to be refunded.

Defending Doral as a “Big seven” site, trump disputed a media report that the resort had bedbug problems and accused Democrats of spreading false stories.

“No bedbugs in Doral,” trump tweeted on August 27. “Radical left Democrats, having heard that perfectly positioned (for the next G-7) Doral national MIAMI is under consideration for the next G-7, spread that false and nasty rumor. Not good!”