Trump Caught (Yet Again) Trying to Use the Presidency For Private Gain

The American ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, told multiple colleagues in February 2018 that Donald Trump had asked him to see if the British government could help steer the world-famous and lucrative British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, according to three people with knowledge of the episode.

The ambassador’s deputy, Lewis A. Lukens, advised him not to do it, warning that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain, these people said. But Johnson apparently felt pressured to try.  A few weeks later, he raised the idea of Turnberry playing host to the Open with the secretary of state for Scotland, David Mundell.

The episode left Lukens and other diplomats deeply unsettled.  Lukens, who served as the acting ambassador before Johnson arrived in November 2017, emailed officials at the State Department to tell them what had happened, colleagues said. A few months later, Johnson forced out Lukens, a career diplomat who had earlier served as ambassador to Senegal, shortly before his term was to end.

The Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts, or “emoluments,” from foreign governments.  It was not the first time the president tried to steer business to one of his properties. Last year, the White House chose the Trump National Doral resort in Miami as the site of a Group of 7 meeting.  Trump backed off after it ignited a political storm, moving the meeting to Camp David before canceling it because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump also urged Vice President Mike Pence to stay at his family’s golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland, last year during a visit, even though the vice president’s official business was on the other side of the country. That trip generated headlines for the golf club, but also controversy.  Trump has also visited his family-owned golf courses more than 275 times since he took office, bringing reporters with him each time, ensuring that the resorts get ample news coverage and additional revenue from Secret Service agents and other members of the Trump entourage.

The Trump International Hotel in Washington has done a brisk trade in guests, foreign and domestic, who are in town to lobby the federal government. Turnberry itself drew attention when the Pentagon acknowledged it had been sending troops to the resort while they were on overnight layovers at the nearby Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

Trump and his children have struggled for more than a decade to attract professional golf tournaments to the family’s 16 golf courses, knowing those events draw global television audiences and help drive traffic.  The courses generate about a third of the family’s revenue, with tournaments seen as a crucial way to publicize them.  This has been particularly important for the two Trump resorts in Scotland and one in Ireland, which have been losing money under Trump’s ownership.  The losses at the British resorts have come even after the family made costly investments to build or upgrade their courses, including $150 million at Turnberry. The most recent annual report for Turnberry shows it lost nearly $1 million, on $19 million in sales, in 2018.

If you were thinking that Deputy Ambassador Lukens was pushed out because he ratted out Johnson to the State Department, don't worry.  According to colleagues, Johnson forced out Lukens for saying nice things about Barack Obama- Johnson acted to remove Lukens after hearing he gave a speech at a British university in which he told a positive anecdote about a visit Mr. Obama had made to Senegal in 2013, when Lukens was the envoy.