WASHINGTON, Oct 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Furious that US President Donald Trump
announced he will host the next G7 summit at his own golf resort in Florida,
congressional Democrats introduced legislation Friday to block his plan.
Lawmakers said the “Trump’s Heist Undermines the G-7 (THUG) Act” would cut
off all federal funding for the move to have leaders of the seven largest
economies in the world gather next June at the Trump National Doral Golf Club
in Miami.
The bill would also require the White House to turn over all relevant
documents that show how administration officials decided on Doral.
“The prospect that the Trump administration would set aside the
Constitution to line the president’s pockets by choosing to host the upcoming
G7 Conference to prop up one the president’s failing properties is enormously
troubling,” House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson said in a
statement.
The measure could pass the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives
as a rebuke to Trump but it has little chance of being put to a vote in the
Senate which is controlled by Republicans.
Critics say Trump’s brazen move would be a clear violation of both the
foreign and domestic emoluments clauses that are designed to shield a US
leader from outside influence.