September 9, 2019

Trump: I Have Nothing to Do With All These Government Officials Staying at My Resorts

“NOTHING TO DO WITH ME.”

Stefani Reynolds/ZUMA

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Amid two separate investigations into possible malfeasance involving his international resort properties, President Donald Trump on Monday professed complete innocence regarding the new probes, which have renewed accusations that the president is enriching himself at taxpayers’ expense.

“NOTHING TO DO WITH ME,” he tweeted about military personnel staying at his Turnberry resort in Scotland earlier this year while refueling at a nearby airport. Air Force leaders have opened an international review into the process of how it chooses layover accommodations following the revelation of the Turnberry stays.

Ten minutes later, Trump returned to Twitter to claim that he was not involved in Vice President Mike Pence’s recent decision to stay at the Trump International in Doonbeg, Ireland, even though Pence’s meetings with Irish leaders took place in Dublin, nearly 200 miles away. When reporters questioned Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, on whether Trump had pressured the vice president into staying at the property, Short initially said that the president had only mentioned it as a “suggestion.” “I don’t think it was a request, like a command,” he said. 

Later, Pence contradicted that narrative, pointing to his ancestral roots in the Doonbeg area as justification for staying hours away from his official meetings.

House Democrats have since announced an investigation into Pence’s Doonbeg stay.

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We can afford to take our time because we don’t report to oligarchs or corporations. We report to you, and for you.

And the stakes are high. Democracy is on the defense. We’ve been exposing corruption and scandal for five decades, and this is a pivotal moment in our country’s history. Will democracy prevail? We won’t wait for time to tell—independent journalism is essential for democracy, and we’ll keep doing our part to amplify the free press.

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