DONALD TRUMP’S Doonbeg golf and hotel resort received €100,000 (£89,000) from the Irish state as payment for food and accommodation provided to Garda protecting the US president during his two-night visit.
That figure represents the largest single payment incurred from a bill of more than €900,000 spent on hosting Irish police during President Trump’s visit last June.
A freedom of information request lifted the lid on the expenditure, which has been roundly criticsed by ethics campaigners in the US.
“When Trump insisted on going way out of his way to stay at his luxury golf resort in Ireland in June, the Irish government ended up paying his business, which he still profits from, more than €113,000,” Robert Maguire from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington tweeted.
When Trump insisted on going way out of his way to stay at his luxury golf resort in Ireland in June, the Irish government ended up paying his business, which he still profits from, more than €113,000https://t.co/Q00zGXvjN2
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) September 27, 2019
The discovery comes weeks after President Trump was forced to deny any suggestions of impropriety over vice-president Mike Pence’s decision to stay at Doonbeg.
Pence opted to stay at Doonbeg in a bid to see his Irish relatives but the decision drew scepticism for the fact he was due to meet with Irish politicians several hundred miles away.
President Trump faced similar criticism after it emerged that the US military had made use of an airport near the President’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.
He has always maintained he had “nothing to do” with Vice President Pence’s stay at the resort and “knew nothing” about the military’s use of the airport.
These latest revelations come just a month after President Trump told leaders at the G7 summit in Biarritez that the 2020 edition should be held at his golf resort in Doral, Florida.
