United States: Congress Bills to Block G7 Hold in Trump Golf

Elected Democrats introduced Friday in the US Congress a bill to prevent Donald Trump to organize the next summit of the G7 in one of its golf clubs in Florida.

The elected officials have named their bill "THUG Act" word game between the term meaning "thug" in English and an acronym for "Trump's heist undermines the G7" ("The blow of Trump night G7", in French) .

The text, presented simultaneously to the House of Representatives and the Senate, aims to block any federal funding for this summit. "Previous G7 summits have cost up to $ 40 million," say the elected in a statement.

The proposed legislation would also require the transmission to Congress of all documents relating to the manner in which the decision to hold the event was made at that location.

The text could be adopted in protest by the Democratic-backed House of Representatives, but is unlikely to cross the Republican-controlled hurdle of the Senate.

Thursday, the White House announced that the next summit of the G7, a major annual meeting that brings together the leaders of the seven most industrialized countries on the planet, will be held at the Trump National Doral Club in Miami, from June 10 to 12, 2020.

The announcement sparked very strong reactions in Washington, among both elected officials and civil society.

Donald Trump "abuses his presidential office and violates the law by redirecting millions of dollars of Americans and money from abroad to his family businesses," said Lois Frankel, one of the Democrats in the House representatives at the origin of the text.

"I'm not going to get any money at all," Donald Trump had assured when he had himself discussed the idea this summer. The Republican billionaire regularly boasts of agreeing to lose money by entering the White House.

19/10/2019 08:09:00 –
Washington (AFP) –
© 2019 AFP