Republican National Committee to Hold Meeting at Trump Doral Resort

WASHINGTON — The Trump family’s Doral resort, it turns out, will still be getting a chunk of new business next year, thanks to President Trump.

The Republican National Committee confirmed that it was planning to return in January to the golf resort, formally known as the Trump National Doral Miami, for its winter meeting, which will pull in hundreds of guests, perhaps including the president himself.

Mr. Trump had hoped to host the leaders of the Group of 7 — the world’s largest economies — at the resort next year, but he gave up on the effort last month after the idea drew rebukes by both Democrats and Republicans, given that foreign governments would then be spending money at the resort.

The Republican Party gathering will bring in much less revenue than the Group of 7 meeting, which had been expected to bring thousands of guests to the resort.

The Republican National Committee visit is hardly surprising, as it has spent at least some money at the resort every year since Mr. Trump has been in office. Most of that spending came last year when it hosted a meeting that resulted $602,852 in payments to Trump Doral, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

Michael Ahrens, a spokesman for the committee, said that the organization had three of these meetings each year and typically spent around the same amount. They are most often not held at Trump-family-owned venues, with recent locations including the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort in New Mexico, the Mayflower Hotel in Washington and the Westin Charlotte in North Carolina.

“The media is obsessed with our spending at Trump properties and has covered it ad nauseam,” Mr. Ahrens said in a statement. “As we have stated multiple times, we continue to hold events at them because they have fantastic service and secure spaces that fit our needs.”

Since Mr. Trump was elected, the Republican National Committee has been one of the biggest political spenders at his properties, including the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where it has spent nearly $450,000, federal records show.

Over all, 192 political candidates or political groups have spent a combined $8.3 million at Trump businesses since the November 2016 election, according to a count by Public Citizen, a watchdog organization.

Foreign governments, trade associations, lobbyists and religious groups have all held events at Trump-owned hotels or resorts, providing unspecified additional revenue to the company.

This has helped the Trump hotels, which in some cases have seen declines in revenue. Mr. Trump has blamed at least part of the revenue declines on decisions by some travelers to stay away from his resorts because of political stands he has taken.

“Doral was setting records when I bought it because I owned it for a period of time. Setting records,” Mr. Trump said last month. “And then what happened? I announced I’m going to run for office. Right? And all of a sudden — and I say, ‘We got to build a wall, we got to have borders, we got to have this, we got to have that.’ All of a sudden, people — some people didn’t like it. They thought the rhetoric was too tough. And it went from doing great to doing fine.”

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