(Bloomberg) -- Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said President Donald Trump made the “right decision” to reverse course and not hold next year’s G-7 summit at his Florida golf resort.
Trump had been taken aback at the amount of criticism about holding the event at one of Trump’s properties, which critics said might violate federal conflict of interest and procurement laws, Mulvaney said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“He was honestly surprised at the level of pushback. At the end of the day, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business,” Mulvaney said of the president. “He wanted to put on absolutely the best show, the best visit that he possibly could.”
Mulvaney said he and Trump talked “at great length” on Saturday about the Doral situation. The decision caused an outcry among Democrats, ethics groups and some Republicans, who said Trump was using a major government event and taxpayer money for personal gain.
Trump in tweets late Saturday night first defended the decision and then abruptly pulled the plug on the White House plan to stage the 2020 Group of Seven meeting at the Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami, which Mulvaney announced at a press conference two days earlier.
To contact the reporters on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net;Bill Allison in Washington at ballison14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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