Washington: US President Donald Trump has said the next G7 summit will not be at one of his own Florida golf clubs, reversing a decision that had sparked corruption accusations.
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had announced the venue for the summit on Thursday, causing a firestorm among Trump’s Democratic opponents in Congress, who called the move “among the most brazen examples yet of the president’s corruption.”
“Based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020,” the president tweeted.
“We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately.”
Mulvaney had said in his Thursday announcement that the south Florida venue was “the best place” among a dozen US locations considered for the June 10-12 gathering next year.
Critics, including ethic campaigners, said holding the event at Doral would violate both the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses that are designed to shield a US leader from outside influence.
“He is exploiting his office and making official US government decisions for his personal financial gain,” Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. (PTI)
