State Dept. Takes Down Promotion Touting Trump's Mar-a-Lago Resort


The U.S. Department of State took down web pages and social media postings promoting President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, FL, Monday, but not before the story went viral and triggered a new round of ethics debates surrounding the President and his personal business interests.

The promotion, which was published under the State Department’s $72 million “ShareAmerica” campaign, features descriptive copy promoting the history of the Mar-a-Lago resort and its new role as the “Winter White House,” and touting how it has been a destination for foreign dignitaries, including a recent trip by the President of China.

“I don’t think it was appropriate,” former Republican Congressman Jack Kingston acknowledged during an interview on CNN. He said it was “part of a $72 million promotion program that Trump inherited and I think he is going to get rid of it.”

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“President Trump feels like he has inherited a multi-trillion dollar promotion program called the United States government,” quipped Norman Eisen in response. Eisen, the Obama White House’s ethics czar, said the Mar-a-Lago promotion was one of a “myriad of conflicts” involving the the Trump White House and Trump’s personal businesses.

He asserted the President has been benefitting from “cash and benefits” from foreign, federal and state entities that violate ethics rules prohibiting public officials from using their office for their own personal gain.

He cited recent trademarks granted by China to President Trump, as well as his daughter and White House staffer Ivanka Trump, as another recent conflict.

Ethics experts on both sides of the aisle agreed that the State Department’s promotion of Mar-a-Lago represented a conflict, and the department took the posts down. But coming on the heels of other White House officials promoting Trump brands, has compounded concerns about conflicts of interests.

In February, White House staffer Kellyanne Conway was reprimanded after she explicitly touted Ivanka Trump’s brands during an interview with Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” following the President’s own use of the White House’s POTUS Twitter account to criticize Nordstrom for dropping Ivanka Trump’s brand.

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