Mick Mulvaney says Trump 'still considers himself to be in the hospitality business' even though he's president

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney listens as President Donald J. Trump participates in a working lunch with governors on workforce freedom and mobility in the Cabinet Room at the White House on Thursday, June 13, 2019 in Washington, DC.

• President Donald Trump's acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney defended Trump's plan to host next year's G-7 summit at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Florida in a Fox News appearance on Sunday.
• He said that Trump "still considers himself to be in the hospitality business."
• Trump has since abandoned the plan to host the event at his resort after facing bipartisan criticism. Critics had said Trump was using he event for personal gain. 
• "The president isn't one for holding back his feelings and his emotions about something. He was honestly surprised at the level of pushback," Mulvaney said of Trump's decision to change his plans.
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President Donald Trump's acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says that the commander-in-chief "still considers himself to be in the hospitality business" while working in the White House, and that's why he wanted to host a G-7 event at one of his resorts.

Mulvaney was defending Trump's plan to host next year's G-7 summit at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Florida when he made the comment on Fox News on Sunday.

Trump has since abandoned the plan to host the event at his resort after facing bipartisan criticism.

"Honestly I think what you saw in the tweet was real," Mulvaney told anchor Chris Wallace on Sunday. "The president isn't one for holding back his feelings and his emotions about something. He was honestly surprised at the level of pushback. At the end of the day, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business."

Critics had said Trump was using he event for personal gain.

In a series of Tweets, Trump said he was no longer planning the event at his resort because of "crazed and irrational hostility" by Democrats and the media.

"So interesting that, when I announced Trump National Doral in Miami would be used for the hosting of the G-7, and then rescinded due to Do Nothing Democrat/Fake News Anger, very few in Media mentioned that NO PROFITS would be taken, or would be given FREE, if legally permissible!" he said in one tweet.

Read more: The reason Trump dropped his Florida resort as the next G7 venue is the opposite to the one he tweeted

Though he failed to mention it in his tweets, Trump also received pushback from Republicans, many of whom said they had a difficult time defending his decision to host the summit. 

Mulvaney told Fox News that the White House would find somewhere else to host the event. 

"My guess is we'll find someplace else that the media won't like either for another reason," he said. 

• Read more:
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