Trump to Host G-7 at Camp David After Trying to Use Own Resort

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump said the U.S. will host next year’s Group of Seven gathering at Camp David in Maryland, after earlier plans to hold the summit at the president’s personal resort were widely criticized.

“It will be at Camp David, which is a place that people like,” Trump said Tuesday during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in London, where the leaders were taking part in a summit to commemorate the 70th anniversary of NATO.

Trump in October reversed a decision to host the 2020 meeting at his Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami after criticism by Republicans, Democrats and ethics experts for using a major government event to steer taxpayer cash toward his financially struggling property.

Critics decried the move as a blatant misuse of authority, and the latest example that he is violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits U.S. officials from receiving payments or gifts from foreign governments.

The 46th G-7 meeting -- which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. -- is scheduled for June 2020. Former President Barack Obama also hosted the 2012 G-8 summit -- when the group included Russia -- at Camp David, the presidential retreat in western Maryland.

Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, previously disparaged Camp David as a summit location, saying participants at the 2012 gathering “hated it.”

“I understand the folks who participated in it hated it and thought it was a miserable place to have the G7,” he said at an October news conference. “It was way too small. It was way too remote. My understanding is this media didn’t like it because you had to drive an hour on a bus to get there either way.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, Justin Blum

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