The 2020 G7 Summit Will No Longer Take Place at Donald Trump's Golf Club
Update: The 2020 G7 summit will no longer be held at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort. On Saturday evening, President Trump tweeted, citing the response from the media as the reason for the change. His Twitter thread reads in part:
"We will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020. We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately."
Read the full series of Tweets here and here.
Original 10/18/2019: The White House announced yesterday that next year's Group of Seven summit, an annual gathering of world leaders, will take place at Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in Florida. "That decision is without precedent in modern American history: The president used his public office to direct a huge contract to himself," said the Washington Post.
The startling news wasn't wholly surprising. During this year's G7 summit in Biarritz, France, in August, President Donald Trump mused about hosting next year's gathering. He bragged that Trump National Doral would be the perfect location, just eight miles from Miami International Airport and with "ample parking" to welcome the leaders of six countries and the many handlers who would accompany them.
What can the leaders of the world's most advanced economies expect?
The Property Has Not Been Profitable in Recent Years
According to the Trump Organization’s own records, the property has suffered in the last few years. According to the Washington Post, tax consultant Jessica Vachiratevanurak, who was arguing that the property’s tax bill should be lowered, reported to a county official last year that the net operating income of Trump National Doral had fallen by 69% from 2015 to 2017. She also stated the hotel was "severely underperforming" other resorts in the area, which includes an Intercontinental, a Best Western, a DoubleTree, and a Hyatt Place. She attributed the decline to Trump’s damaged brand.
The summit will draw hundreds of diplomats, journalists, and security teams to Trump Doral next June, what is reportedly one of its slowest months of the year.
Yesterday, the White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney explained the White Houses's choice of the Trump property: “Doral was far and away the best physical facility for this meeting,” he said. The administration apparently looked into 10 sites before choosing this one. Mulvaney quoted an anonymous site selection official who he said told him, “It’s almost like they built this facility to host this type of event.”
Yes, the airport is super close, but what else is nearby?
The Medley landfill (5 miles out) and Covanta Waste Energy facility (3 miles away), which have both received thousands of complaints for filling the air in Doral with terrible odors and making nearby living conditions unbearable. There is a class action lawsuit against Medley (which locals call Mount Trashmore) in the works. G7 2020 attendees will likely be protected from such smells from within the air-conditioned confines of Trump National.
Rooms and Rates
As for resort itself, it's got all the fake gold and faux extravagance expected of a Trump establishment and it can be had for a budget price, at least as far as South Florida hospitality is concerned: Rooms start at just $159 a night. The website boasts of a 800-acre property with four "championship golf courses," a pool with a 125-ft slide, 100,000 square feet of event space including a ballroom (named the Donald J. Trump ballroom, naturally), and "breathtaking views" (of what, it's not clear).
Yes, there were bedbugs.
In 2017 the hotel reached a settlement with a former guest who claimed he suffered several bed bug bites during his stay. Significantly more alarming, in 2018, a gunman opened fire in the lobby of the hotel shouting anti-Trump rhetoric.
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