This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

The White House says it has chosen Donald Trump’s golf resort near Miami as the site for next year’s Group of Seven summit.

The announcement on Thursday comes at the same that the president has accused Joe Biden’s family of profiting from public office because of Hunter Biden’s business activities in Ukraine when his father was vice-president.

The G7 summit will be held from 10 to 12 June. The idea of holding the event at Trump’s resort has been criticized by government ethics watchdogs.

Anti-corruption groups condemned the move. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said the move was “unbelievable”, especially in the light of ongoing impeachment efforts against Trump.

“Given the potential consequences the president is facing for abusing the presidency for his own gain, we would have thought he would steer clear of blatant corruption at least temporarily; instead he has doubled down on it. The president is now officially using the power of his office to help prop up his struggling golf business,” said Crew’s executive director, Noah Bookbinder.

“There appears to be no bottom to President Trump’s corruption. What matters most to him is his personal profit and personal advancement, not the best interests of the American people. There is now no question that the American government is being used as a public relations and marketing subsidiary of the Trump Organization.”

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Trump has touted his resort, the Trump National Doral, saying it is close to the airport, has plenty of hotel rooms and offers separate buildings for every delegation.

When the United States has hosted the summit before, it has been held in Puerto Rico; Williamsburg, Virginia; Houston; Denver; Sea Island, Georgia; and Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

The acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, told reporters the the administration selected Trump’s resort after initially looking at about 12 potential locations in various other US states.

“Doral was by far and away the best physical facility for this meeting,” he said at a news briefing. “It’s almost like they built this facility to host this event.”

Mulvaney said the event would be “at cost” and that using the Trump site would save millions of dollars and was cheaper than the other potential sites.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate and former vice-president, over his son’s business ties in Ukraine and China, which Trump has repeatedly called corrupt, without evidence.

Asked how the president’s use of his private business properties to host official government events differed from Trump’s allegations against the Bidens, Mulvaney told reporters there would be no profit and said the family had made their money before Trump became president in January 2017.

Trump has said he is not involved with the day-to-day operations of his private company and that his sons run the business.