A property owned by the Trump family on the western coast of Ireland promoted President Trump’s stay there on Friday, prompting criticism from ethics watchdogs over the blurred line between business and government interests.
Trump Doonbeg tweeted — and then later deleted — two videos directly referencing the president, who spent Wednesday night and Thursday night at the resort and golf club.
In the first tweet, the Marine One helicopter was shown touching down on the property to take the president and first lady to nearby Shannon Airport for the flight back to Washington, D.C.
“What an honour it was to have the President of the United States @POTUS and the First Lady @FLOTUS stay with us in Doonbeg,” the first tweet read.
A second tweet included a video of Trump using the property’s golf course on Friday morning.
“After we called them out for using the presidency for a commercial, @TrumpDoonbeg deleted its offending tweets,” said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group that has filed numerous ethics complaints about the Trump administration.
After we called them out for using the presidency for a commercial, @TrumpDoonbeg deleted its offending tweets. But we've got screenshots, because the internet is forever. pic.twitter.com/8BMvjzgVhm
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) June 7, 2019
Trump stayed at the property following a state visit in London. He traveled from Doonbeg to Normandy on Thursday morning for a D-Day remembrance ceremony, then back to Ireland in the evening.
The Friday morning tweets drew criticism from ethics watchdogs, and some reporters noted that the Trump family had previously pledged to avoid mixing business and government.
“Make no mistake, Trump is now using the office of the president to do commercials for the business he still owns,” CREW said.
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Watchdogs cite ethics concerns after Trump's Ireland property promotes his visit https://t.co/YF2JSVi6qh pic.twitter.com/kZLCfe5C7r
— The Hill (@thehill) June 7, 2019
Trump had barely left his for-profit golf resort in Ireland today before it began using videos of him teeing off and arriving aboard Marine One in its promotional material.https://t.co/1pViciZdmj
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) June 7, 2019
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