(AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Friday he would host the 2026 G20 summit at his own golf resort in Miami — despite abandoning a similar move in his first term after accusations of corruption. Billionaire Trump said his Trump National Doral resort and spa was the ideal choice for the gathering in December next year because it is “beautiful” and the Florida weather is nice.
“It’s going to be at Doral,” the 79-year-old told reporters in the Oval Office after announcing that Miami would be the venue for next year’s summit. “Everybody wants it there because it’s right next to the airport, it’s the best location, it’s beautiful, a beautiful everything.”
But Trump, who has faced repeated accusations that he and his family have enriched themselves during his two presidencies, insisted he would not profit from the event. “We will not make any money on it. We’re doing a deal where it’s not going to be money, there’s no money in it. I just want it to go well,” Trump said.
Another reason for holding the event at Doral, Trump said, was that most hotel rooms in Miami are normally fully booked in December. “Each country will have its own building. I think it will be really a beautiful thing.” Trump was born in New York but has made Florida his home for years, with his Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach and the Doral resort nearer the sprawling metropolis of Miami.
He had made similar plans to host the 2020 G7 summit at the Doral resort during his first presidency. But it caused a firestorm among Trump’s Democratic opponents, who called it “among the most brazen examples yet of the president’s corruption.” He later ditched the plan with a swipe at “media and Democrat crazed and irrational hostility” — and the summit eventually never took place because of the Covid pandemic.
Trump at the time also abandoned a plan to invite Russia despite its suspension from the G7 because of its annexation of Crimea. But this time Trump said he would be open to Russian President Vladimir Putin attending the G20 despite Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine — adding that he would also welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping. “I would love them to, if they want to,” Trump said. He added, however, that they would be “observers, and I’m not sure if they’d want to come as observers” — despite the fact that both Russia and China are G20 members.
Trump meanwhile confirmed that he would skip this year’s G20 in South Africa and send Vice President JD Vance instead. The US president had previously said he was unlikely to go, citing debunked claims of white citizens being systematically persecuted and killed in the country. “I won’t be going, JD will be going. Great vice president, and he looks forward to it,” Trump said. – Danny KEMP
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