Mick Mulvaney Explains Trump’s Doral Delusion: ‘He Considers Himself To Still Be In The Hospitality Business’

One might have thought that Mick Mulvanely, having thoroughly screwed the proverbial pooch on Thursday, would have tried to lay low for a while. (Especially considering he’s ducking a subpoena.)

After all, Donald Trump’s acting chief of staff admitted on Thursday that the White House withheld nearly $400 million in congressionally-approved military aid to Ukraine pending a promise from the Volodymyr Zelensky government that the country would launch an investigation into the 2016 election.

A few hours later, Mulvaney tried to tell the public he didn’t say what he in fact said, but unfortunately, he said it on national television at a press conference. Jay Sekulow and the Justice department denied having any knowledge of what Mick appeared to admit on behalf of the administration. That quick disavowal was proof that Mulvaney committed a serious blunder.

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Of course, the press conference wasn’t convened to give Mick an opportunity to brag about the frequency with which Trump commits impeachable acts. Rather, Mulvaney spoke at length about the president’s decision to hold next year’s G-7 at his own Miami resort.

The announcement that Trump intended to host world leaders at Doral wasn’t entirely out of left field. For one thing, this is Trump we’re talking about, so even if he hadn’t mentioned hosting it at one of his properties previously, you knew he would float the idea eventually, but he actually had – mentioned it previously that is.

It was also a virtual certainty that he would never get away with it, which is why we resisted the temptation to pen an irritated missive decrying the latest laughably brazen example of self-dealing to come out of the regime.

Facing incredulity from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and given the fact that Trump’s choice of venue represented a cartoonishly flagrant violation of the Constitution, the president ultimately thought better of it.

“I thought I was doing something very good for our Country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 Leaders”, a dejected Trump said late Saturday, pretending to have no idea why anyone was offended. He continued:

It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, has tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have its own 50 to 70 unit building. Would set up better than other alternatives. I announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democrat Partners went CRAZY!

Correct. Because, again, hosting the G-7 at Doral was unconstitutional and illegal – period. By “period”, we mean that we say that with no malice towards the president. He was going to end up sued and had he gone ahead with the move, it would have thrown more fuel on the impeachment fire. In other words, it was a profoundly stupid idea, even as Trump ideas go.

On Sunday, Mulvaney was dispatched to explain the reversal and, predictably, Mick delivered a cringe-worthy performance under questioning by Chris Wallace, who is becoming a real thorn in the administration’s side.

“Why did he cave?”, Wallace asked. “I talked with him about it at great length last night”, Mulvaney began. “I honestly think what you saw in the tweet was real”, Mick went on to muse, tacitly acknowledging that on most occasions, the only thing that differentiates the president’s verified Twitter handle from a spoof account is the blue checkmark.

“He was honestly surprised at the level of pushback”, Mulvaney continued. That’s probably some semblance of true – after all, Trump clearly doesn’t know what the Constitution does and doesn’t allow him to do, as evidenced by the fact that he has repeatedly insisted there is an amendment that lets him, quote, “do whatever I want”.

“At the end of the day, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business, and he saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world and he wanted to put on the absolute best show, the best visit that he possibly could and he was very confident of doing that at Doral”, Mick remarked.

That is somewhat disconcerting. The president should not still consider himself to be in the hospitality business. And G-7s aren’t about “putting on the absolute best show”. This isn’t a game, summits aren’t game shows and the president is not an entertainer.

Wallace was incredulous. “I just have to pick up — you said he considers himself to be in the hospitality business — he’s the President of the United States”.

“Yeah!”, Mick exclaimed, before repeating that “He wanted to put on a show”.