Trump property in Ireland promotes president’s visit

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.

{mosads}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, France, 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.

Make no mistake, Trump is now using the office of the president to do commercials for the business he still owns. https://t.co/AwjiJ6EEXl

— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) June 7, 2019

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The president roiled critics and ethics officials when, upon taking office in 2017, he declined to place his assets in a blind trust and instead turned over control of his business empire to his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. 

“There are lines that we would never cross, and that’s mixing business with anything government,” Eric Trump told The Washington Post in 2017.

Each of the president’s adult children traveled with him on his trip to Europe this weekend. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump posted several photos on social media as they joined their father at Buckingham Palace and Winfield House in London, stopped at pubs in Ireland and attended D-Day ceremonies in Normandy.

Updated at 11:39 a.m.