Will the State Dept. Continue to Promote or Advertise This or the President’s Other Properties?
The U.S. Dept. Of State has removed a post promoting President Donald Trump’s private member’s-only club, spa, and golf course, Mar-a-Lago, from its ShareAmerica website. ShareAmerica is designed to promote American businesses and ideals, and includes a “Travel to the U.S.” segment of its website.
NCRM and CNN Monday afternoon posted articles highlighting the blog post, which heavily promoted Mar-a-Lago as “President Trump’s Florida estate,” noting it “has “become well known as the president frequently travels there to work or host foreign leaders.” CNN first reported the post had been removed. After winning the White House President Trump doubled the club’s annual fees, to $200,000. The Washington Post this weekend noted Trump has visiting Mar-a-Lago or another of his properties once every 2.8 days since taking office.
“The intention of the article was to inform the public about where the President has been hosting world leaders. We regret any misperception and have removed the post,” the State Dept.’s ShareAmerica website now states. The post had been on the State Dept.’s website since April 4, and is still live on the UK Embassy’s site. There are also several Facebook posts still up and at least one State Dept. tweet promoting the article and the estate.
NCRM Monday afternoon sent an email to the State Dept. requesting answers to these questions:
- Did anyone from the White House or Trump administration direct the writing and publishing of the blog post? If so, whom and when?
- Why is a private property personally-owned by President Trump being promoted by the U.S. State Dept.? Did anyone check to determine if there were any legal conflict of interest in its publication, a de facto promotion of the President’s personal business property?
- Will the State Dept. continue to promote or advertise this or the President’s other properties? Why or why not?
- How many views has the blog post received on both ShareAmerica and the UK Embassy site?
- Does the author have any prior relationship with President Trump, or any member of the Trump family, or any Trump business employee?
The post was removed shortly thereafter.
No response has yet been received.
Many on social media expressed outrage and anger at yet another clear abuse of executive power for personal financial gain by the Trump administration, including leading Democrats:
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Image by Wally Gobetz via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ
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