Apparently, the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution meant little to Donald Trump compared to how he thought he looked on TV when he decided to reverse his decision to hold the 2020 G7 at his own resort.
Brian Stelter’s newsletter highlighted the first sentence in this paragraph from a New York Times article called, “Why Trump Dropped His Idea to Hold the G7 at His Own Hotel.” The subtitle is, “He knew Democrats would criticize him. When Republicans started doing so, he changed his mind.”
The president first heard the criticism of his choice of the Doral watching TV, where even some Fox News personalities were disapproving. By Saturday afternoon, his concerns had deepened when he put in a call to Camp David, where Mr. Mulvaney was hosting moderate congressional Republicans for a discussion of issues facing them, including impeachment, and was told the consensus was he should reverse himself. Those moderates are among the votes Mr. Trump would need to stick with him during an impeachment.
That got me thinking, did acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney not advise Trump before Thursday’s announcement that awarding himself a big government contract was a bad idea, especially smack in the middle of claiming that he withheld aid from Ukraine because he was concerned about corrupt self-dealing in the Biden family? And oh, yeah, in the middle of an impeachment inquiry that would likely add this blatant violation of the emoluments clause? Was it only after seeing the criticism on TV that Trump cared what Mulvaney had to say? Or when yes-man Mulvaney had the nerve to say it? In the original announcement about the Doral last week, Mulvaney lauded the property as "far and away the best physical facility for this meeting” and “perfect for our needs.”
The Washington Post reports aides made some kind of effort to dissuade Trump.
Trump has been closely watching Republicans and their comments about impeachment, according to one administration official. The president was told repeatedly his G-7 decision made it more difficult to keep Senate Republicans in a unified front against impeachment proceedings, the official said. Before he changed course, Trump had waved off concerns from advisers who said hosting world leaders at his club would not play well.
“There was very little support for this in the building even before Mick went out there and did what he did,” an official said.
So while Trump was likely warned in advance by some person or persons in the White House, he seems not to have paid attention until he heard it on Fox News and/or elsewhere on TV.
According to The Times, Trump also timed the announcement of his reversal partly to accommodate his Fox watching schedule:
By late Saturday afternoon, Mr. Trump had made his decision, but he waited to announce the reversal until that night in two tweets that were separated by a break he took to watch the opening of Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News program.
(Trump caricature by DonkeyHotey via Creative Commons license)