Trump Caves - The G7 Meeting Will NOT Be at His Facility

(Photo of Trump, from Politico.com, is by Mandel Ngan / Getty Images.)

Trump thought he had a brilliant idea -- give himself a big government contract by holding next year's G7 meeting at his Doral Golf Club. The club, which is having financial problems, needed a shot in the arm and Trump thought that would do it. The problem is that it looked like the definition of corruption to everyone else.

There was significant blowback after it was announced, and Trump finally caved and said the meeting will not be at his facility. He said the search for a different place will begin.

Trump tried to place the blame on Democrats and the press, but that was just him trying to save face. The truth is that the public, and even his own defenders in the Republican Party, didn't like the idea. The corruption was just too obvious this time.

Trump had claimed that he was going to rent the facility to the government "at cost". No one believed that either, since he refused to say just what would be charged. Trump has averaged over 13 lies every day since being sworn in, and most thought that was probably just one more lie.

Here's how The Washington Post reported Trump's change of plans:

President Trump announced abruptly Saturday night that he would no longer host next year’s Group of Seven summit at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Florida, bowing to criticism for having selected his own property as the venue for a major diplomatic event.

Trump was buffeted by two straight days of allegations of self-dealing and exasperation from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including some Republican allies who said the selection of Doral as the venue for a gathering of world leaders was indefensible.

The decision — while it lasted — was an unprecedented one in modern American politics: The president awarded a huge contract to himself. The White House promoted Doral as the single best venue in the United States to host the G-7 summit in June, and the meeting would have brought thousands of guests in the offseason to a resort that is struggling financially.

For months, Trump had touted Doral as an ideal venue to host visiting dignitaries, and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney made the choice official at a news conference Thursday.

But in a rare reversal in the face of public pressure for a president who prides himself in rarely folding or admitting failure, Trump said Saturday that he and his administration would search for a new location. He attributed the concession to “Irrational Hostility” from Democrats as well as the media, although the revolt among some Republicans may well have been the trigger. . . .

Mulvaney’s announcement sparked immediate criticism — not only from Democrats but also from some Republican lawmakers who ordinarily defend the president’s actions.

“I think it’s not a good thing to have the appearance — you know, in the law, there’s a canon that says, ‘Avoid the appearance of impropriety,’ ” said Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.). “I think that would be better if he would not use his hotel for this kind of stuff.”

Doral has been struggling in recent years. The property saw its net operating income decline 69 percent from 2015 to 2017, according to documents the Trump Organization filed with Miami-Dade County.

Hosting the G-7 summit would have been a major boon for the company, filling the hotel in June, a month when the resort is typically less than 40 percent full. Tourism in South Florida generally is not as high in the summer as it is in the winter, in part because of the region’s heat and humidity.

Income Inequality Is High In U.S. And Still Growing

These charts use information compiled by the Pew Research Center. They show the growing income inequality in the United States. This inequality is normally judged by how much income is required to enter the top 10% compared to the level of income below which puts someone in the bottom 10%.

The top chart shows the GINI Coefficient. This is a number between 0 and 1 -- and the higher the number is, the more inequality exists. Note that before the GOP took over economic policy in 1980, we were actually making progress toward a more equal society. The GINI declined between 1970 and 1980. But after the Republicans established their "trickle-down" economic policy, it has been rising.

The second chart shows the ratio of income between the bottom and top 10% of earners. In 1970, the income requited to be in the top 10% was 6.9 times the income of the bottom 10%. That went down to 6.1 times in 1980. Then after the GOP economic policies were put into place, that ratio started to rise. In 2016, it was 8.7.

The third chart shows the actual incomes required to enter the top 10% or be relegated to the bottom 10%. Note that the gap has grown significantly. It continues to grow. And the recent GOP tax cut for the rich will cause the inequality to grow even faster.

The chart below shows the GINI of all the G-7 nations in 2015. Note that the United States was the most unequal of those nations. In 2015, the GINI for the U.S. was .435. It has now grown to .442.

Republicans like to claim their fiscal policies are good for all Americans. It's a lie. Their policies have tilted the economic playing field to favor the rich -- at the expense of all other Americans. They must be voted out of power so a fairer economic policy can be instituted.

Trump Treating G-6 Members As Enemies Strengthens Them

Donald Trump seems to have declared war on our best allies. While embracing dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdogan, and Kim Jong-Un, he has tried to bully and threaten allies like France, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Italy. He has put a tariff on their steel and aluminum, and threatened to apply other tariffs if they retaliate. And his bullying tactics at the recent G-7 meeting has just driven them further away -- and made them question whether the U.S. can be trusted with Trump as president.

The chart above shows what the people of those six nations thought of U.S. leadership before the G-7 meeting. Note that all of those nations had a very high opinion of Barack Obama as president. But their opinion of Trump is very low. The percentage saying they have at least some confidence in U.S. leadership under Trump is only 25% or lower in all six countries -- France (14%), Canada (22%), United Kingdom (22%), Germany (11%), Japan (24%), and Italy (25%).

Those are terrible numbers, and Trump's atrocious performance at the G-7 meeting is not going to improve them. I expect it will have the opposite effect -- making these leaders (who stood up to Trump) stronger among their own citizens, and giving them the support they need to fight Trump's ridiculous trade war.

The G-7 meeting just proved once again that Trump's foreign policy moves have been a disaster -- and have seriously damaged the reputation of the United States.

The chart above is from the Pew Research Center.

Schmidt Blasts Trump/GOP Congress Over G-7 Disaster

(This photo of Steve Schmidt, from Wikipedia, is by David Shankbone.)

Steve Schmidt is a life-long Republican, and has worked for many Republican candidates -- including being in charge of the daily campaign moves of John McCain during his 2008 run for the presidency.

But Schmidt is also a loyal American, and he is horrified by the damage Donald Trump is doing to his party, and to the United States of America.

After Trump's disastrous appearance at the G-7 conference in Canada, where he attacked our allies (especially Canada) and withdrew from the summit agreement after telling our allies he agreed, Schmidt took to Twitter to express his displeasure with Trump and the congressional Republicans (who failed to speak out).

Here are his tweets:

Is The U.S. Big Enough To Dictate Trade Policy To Others?

Right after World War II, the United States economy was undoubtably the strongest in the world. One reason for that is because the European and Asian countries were devastated by the war and trying to recover. It left the United States in a position to dictate economic policy to the world.

The United States continues to have the biggest economy in the world -- with a gross domestic product of about $20.41 billion. Is that big enough to bully the rest of the world into accepting U.S. trade policy. Donald Trump seems to think it is. He thinks he can put tariffs on other countries, and force them to give in to U.S. economic desires.

He is wrong. While there are a lot of smaller countries that the U.S. can bully, Trump is picking on some economic entities that are now big enough to withstand the pressure and fight back. He is trying to bully China, the European Union, and the G-6 nations (the G-7 without the U.S.).

Those entities do not have tiny economies anymore. China has a GDP of $14.09 billion (and its growing fast). The G-6 countries have a GDP of $19.22 billion (and Trump's performance last weekend has united them). And the European Union has a GDP of $19.67 billion (less than a billion below the United States).

They are big enough to play economic hardball with the United States -- and that is especially true if you combine the G-6 and China, or the European Union and China. Trump has said a trade war would be easy to win, but he's picking on economic entities that are strong and capable of fighting back. They can hurt the U.S. as much (maybe more) than the U.S. can hurt them in a trade war.

Trump is living in the past, but the world has changed. In this modern world, we must get along with our allies and follow policies that are good for all -- not just the United States.