Donald Trump wants to host next year’s G7 summit at his golf resort in Doral, Florida, but beyond the outrage that a president would want to profit off his office that his suggestion prompted, he’s facing another challenge: bedbugs. Rumors started swirling after Trump offered up the swanky spot for the next G7 meeting that his resort in Doral was beset by the tiny, bloodsucking critters. The president immediately denied the rumors, but as Business Insider reports, the resort settled a lawsuit with a guest over the issue of bedbugs in 2017.
Trump blamed the “radical left” for the rumor on Tuesday morning and offered up a defense of his golf resort.
“No bedbugs at Doral. The Radical Left Democrats, upon hearing that the perfectly located (for the next G-7) Doral National MIAMI was under consideration for the next G-7, spread that false and nasty rumor. Not nice!” he tweeted.
But evidence shows that this isn’t the first time the resort has been charged with the report of bedbugs. Eric Linder, an insurance executive, sued the Doral resort in 2016, saying that he’d been bitten repeatedly while staying at the resort in the luxurious Jack Nicklaus Villa. In 2017, the Trump resort settled the case with Linder.
According to The Washington Post , Linder woke up while staying at the resort to “welts, lumps and marks over much of his face, neck, arms and torso.”
He asserted that the villa had “a history of severe bed bug infestation.”
Reports about the infestation surfaced after Trump said that he could host next year’s G7 gathering at the Trump National Doral Miami. The G7, which gathers global leaders together to address the challenges facing the world, was hosted in France for 2019. At a press conference with this year’s host, French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump suggested that the Florida resort was the perfect spot for the summit.
President Trump is the master at spreading negative information about himself https://t.co/PQYKrRDRn6 Since he brought it up, here is the article on Trump’s property settling case of bedbugs.
— David Rothschild ? (@DavMicRot) August 27, 2019
On Monday, he continued to tout the benefits of hosting the meeting at his resort while speaking with reporters.
“Doral happens to be… only five minutes from the airport, the airport’s right next door,” he said. “And by the way, my people looked at 12 sites, all good, but some were two hours from the airport, some four hours.”
He went on to say that the resort had multiple “magnificent” bungalows that each has 50-70 rooms with “magnificent” views. His suggestion was immediately met with backlash over concerns that he was seeking to profit off of his position as president, though Trump denied that money was a factor, according to NBC News .
