The New York Times International - 29.08.2019

T HE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019 | 5

world

President Emmanuel Macron of France
seemed to be everywhere at once during
the Group of 7 summit. For the space of a
weekend, at least, the West appeared to
have one person running the show, and
it was not the American president.
One day, Mr. Macron was wooing
President Trump over a long, private
lunch. The next he was flying in the Ira-
nian foreign minister for unannounced
talks. He seized the role as chief defend-
er of the global climate, telling Brazil-
ians to get themselves a new president.
He prompted a surprise diplomatic
opening on Iran from Mr. Trump, even if
both initiatives hit early headwinds on
Tuesday.
Mr. Macron missed no opportunity to
wring every advantage from his role as
host of the summit in the southern re-
sort city of Biarritz. It gave him the per-
fect stage to pursue his ambition, both
grandiose and self-serving, to position
France, and himself, as candidates to fill
the vacancy left by Mr. Trump’s retreat
from traditional Western values.
With Mr. Trump deepening American
isolation on major global issues, and
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany
on a glide path out of power, Mr. Macron
has become the leading champion of Eu-
ropean unity and multilateralism.
Mr. Macron clearly wanted to use the
Group of 7 forum to show the world that
neither are dead letters. He also wanted
to show off himself.
The Élysée Palace offered several
news outlets behind-the-scenes access
to the French president during the sum-
mit. Mr. Macron organized the events to
avoid the missteps that have produced
undiplomatic outbursts from Mr. Trump
in the past.
His lunch with Mr. Trump on Day 1 es-
tablished that this forum was for two
leaders as much as it was for seven, as
did the leaders’ joint news conference at
the summit’s end. Those touches sated
the American president’s ego, even as
they effectively elevated the two men to
the status of first among equals.
But Mr. Macron’s objective appeared
to be not so much showing up his Ameri-
can counterpart as reasserting the effi-
cacy of the European approach to global
problems.
He said as much last week, telling
journalists that the summit was a way to
demonstrate that the “European civili-
zation project” was an “answer” in a
world searching for “global stability.”
“If we can’t redefine the terms of our
sovereignty, we can’t defend our
project,” Mr. Macron said to reporters
before leaving for Biarritz. “Man is at
the heart of the project,” he said, adding
that the “relationship to the dignity of
man, to humanism” was “the foundation
of European civilization.”
In the context of global diplomacy,

that means eschewing the threats, bul- lying and humiliation favored by Mr. Trump and what Mr. Macron called the “nationalist-sovereignists” in favor of multilateral diplomacy and a refusal to demonize adversaries.

Mr. Macron’s domestic stock, only lately creeping up after being battered by months of Yellow Vest protests, has improved further after what the French media characterized as a successful summit.

He “managed to be at the forefront and sometimes at the center of some of the hottest diplomatic issues of the day,” said Bruno Tertrais, deputy director of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. Mr. Macron came out of the Group of 7 meeting “as well as any head of state can,” Mr. Tertrais said, adding that he had “appeared as someone who can achieve results on the key multilateral issues.” “It does establish its credentials as a global leader for multilateralism and lib- eral values,” Mr. Tertrais said of the summit. “I’m actually quite favorably impressed.” Not everyone was as enamored of the presumptive French role, however. Early in the weekend Mr. Trump’s aides complained that the agenda that Mr. Macron set focused more on what they called “niche issues” like climate change than on global economic challenges. In a dispute that has grown personal, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil de- manded an apology from Mr. Macron on Tuesday before he said Brazil could con- sider an aid package of more than $ million to fight fires in the Amazon offered by leaders at the summit. Last week, Mr. Bolsonaro mocked Mr.

Macron’s wife and said the French president was treating Brazil “as if we were a colony.” Mr. Macron had responded by saying that he hoped Brazilians would soon get a “president who behaves prop- erly.” There was also little doubt that, try as he might to play the role of global stand- ard-bearer, Mr. Macron would not get far without allies — particularly on issues like trade and climate change — and that their ranks were thinning. Mr. Macron “seemed dynamic,” but relatively alone, said Nicolas Tenzer, who teaches at Sciences Po, a leading university for political science in Paris. Mr. Tenzer said that Mr. Macron had “a better grasp of the issues” than Mr. Trump or Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, but added that, with the Ger- man chancellor nearing the end of her tenure, “he’s the only one.” “It’s a great advantage, and also a source of solitude.” On the Iranian question in particular, Mr. Macron appeared to be nudging Mr. Trump in a new direction. He got Mr. Trump to accept the surprise visit of an Iranian official, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in the midst of a conflict that has escalated in recent months with a string of episodes

involving oil tankers and drones near Iran. He even got Mr. Trump to agree, in principle, to a possible meeting with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. Such a meeting would be the first between American and Iranian leaders since the Tehran hostage crisis of 1979-81, though Mr. Rouhani said that he would not sit down with Mr. Trump until Washington ended its economic sanctions. “It’s the beginning of something,” Mr. Macron said. Mr. Macron was careful to offer guarded praise for the American position, which he said “creates pressure, and conditions for a better agreement.” And he got Mr. Trump to say he was against “regime change” in Iran, re- assuring European officials who have been worried about the worst for months. On the economic front, Mr. Macron said a major issue for him was “Can we pacify international commerce?” It was “an error in reasoning” to en- gage in “commercial war and isolation- ism,” Mr. Macron said. And again, he got Mr. Trump to sound notes on the trade war that were far more conciliatory to- ward China than over preceding days. It was in his handling of Mr. Trump, the declared enemy of multilateralism and unabashed wrecker of summits, that Mr. Macron showed his greatest agility. The relationship has had its ups and downs over the last two years, with the French president’s early efforts to woo his American counterpart proving spec- tacularly unsuccessful and eroding his popularity back home. The leaders clashed as recently as November, when Mr. Macron de- nounced nationalism in a speech at events commemorating the 100th anni- versary of the end of World War I and Mr. Trump responded with a scathing series of Twitter posts that highlighted the French leader’s low approval rating. This time was different. Mr. Macron’s technique was evident as the two men stood side by side at the final news conference: Mr. Macron appeared respect- ful, sharply curbing his own tendency for long-winded, abstract explanations that might have irritated Mr. Trump. Nor did Mr. Macron launch into the numbing detail on secondary issues with which he battered French journalists at a later news conference. And he went out of his way to praise a leader who has been openly mocked by a num- ber of his counterparts. “We’ve worked very closely, with lots of energy, with President Trump these last days,” Mr. Macron said at the news conference. “And we’re going to contin- ue to work together in the coming months. We’ll be side by side in all of these fights.” That one-on-one lunch he organized for Mr. Trump — aides only joined at the end — evidently went far to mollify the American president. Mr. Trump spoke effusively about the meeting afterward. “We had a lunch that lasted for quite a while, just the two of us,” Mr. Trump said. “It was the best period of time we’ve ever had. We weren’t trying to im- press anybody, just each other.”

French leader raises his global profile

President Emmanuel Macron of France, right, showed his greatest agility in handling President Trump during the Group of 7 summit meeting in Biarritz, France.

ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES

PARIS

Macron placated Trump

while pursuing an agenda

of Europe-style diplomacy

BY ADAM NOSSITER

Fires in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil this week. President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil accused Mr. Macron of treating the country ‘‘as if we were a colony or a no-man’s land.”

VICTOR MORIYAMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Presidents usually use international
summits to advance their policy agen-
das on the world stage. But President
Trump turned a public appearance in
southern France into what sounded like
an infomercial for his sagging golf and
resort business in southern Florida.
In suggesting on Monday that the
next Group of 7 summit meeting of
world leaders should be held at his own
luxury golf resort in Doral, Fla., west of
Miami, Mr. Trump put the most glaring
spotlight to date on his willingness to
flout the ethical boundaries that have
historically constrained activities that
mix for-profit business and the presi-
dency.
And not just for any personal busi-
ness: The Trump National Doral Miami
Golf Club is the Trump family’s biggest
moneymaking asset, though it has
shown signs of financial struggle since
Mr. Trump began running for president
in 2015.
Mr. Trump said his property, a “great
place,” was uniquely equipped to handle
the Group of 7 meeting in 2020.
“It’s got tremendous acreage, many
hundreds of acres, so we can handle
whatever happens,” Mr. Trump bragged
in Biarritz, France. “People are really
liking it and plus it has buildings that
have 50 to 70 units. And so each delega-
tion can have its own building.”
“We haven’t found anything that
could even come close to competing
with it,” he told reporters at the begin-
ning of a bilateral meeting with Chancel-
lor Angela Merkel of Germany.
But David J. Sangree, a hotel consult-
ant in Ohio, scoffed at the notion that the
sprawling resort has some special quali-
ties that distinguish it from many possi-
ble venues in the United States that
could host a global summit.
“The Doral probably is a location that
could hold it,” he said after examining a
37-page list of hotels in the United States
that also hold a four-diamond rating

from AAA. “But there are a hundred places that this type of event could be held in the United States.” Unlike more typical, secluded summit venues, the resort would be difficult to secure: Its entrance, lined by palm trees, lies near one of the busiest inter- sections in Doral. Last year, an armed man opened fire on police officers inside the hotel lobby. Mr. Trump has visited the property only once as president, for a Republican National Committee fund- raiser in June. The Secret Service informed the Do- ral Police Department two months ago that the resort was among a dozen po- tential venues for the summit, Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez said.

“It gives us great exposure, to have an event of this magnitude,” he said. “But logistically, it’s going to be a heck of a lift.” The summer season, when the Group of 7 summit usually takes place, is con- sidered the less desirable time to visit South Florida because of the heat and humidity. Sheets of rain came down on the property on Monday. A former suburb of warehouses and strip malls, Doral is now an economic hub for Miami-Dade County, a city home to 62,000 people — 83 percent of them Hispanic — as well as corporate head- quarters, news outlets and the United States Southern Command. Critics argue that the summit, which attracts global attention and brings with it thousands of government officials and the international news media, would be an enormous windfall for Mr. Trump’s property, providing an immediate in- crease in revenue and raising its profile around the world. The result, they say, would cross a line that previous presidents have avoided. “Trump would basically be compel- ling foreign governments to spend money at his personal resort, while pro-

moting the resort on the world stage,” said Deepak Gupta, an ethics lawyer with expertise in such cases. Mr. Trump has largely ignored such criticism since becoming president. As president-elect, he promised to step away from running his business but later put his children in charge of it. He pledged not to do any new deals but did not put the business into a blind trust. The financial disclosure form that Mr. Trump is required to file with the government listed the Doral resort as the Trump Organization’s crown jewel, con- sistently bringing in annual revenue of more than $50 million. Mr. Trump does not have to disclose the profit or loss of his businesses. More detailed documents paint a less rosy picture. The documents, as previ- ously reported by The Washington Post in May, were submitted to Miami-Dade County as part of a challenge to reduce the property tax the golf club must pay. They show that the resort’s net operating income — what is left after costs are subtracted — has dropped nearly 69 percent in two years. Net operating income was $13.8 million in 2015, $12.4 million in 2016 and $4. million in 2017, the year Mr. Trump was sworn in as president and the last year for which records are available. The documents, public records that have been reviewed by The New York Times, also show that business was weaker across the board in 2017. Reve- nue from room rentals slipped roughly 9 percent year-over-year. Money the resort brought in from golf was down al- most 8 percent, and revenue generated from its food and beverage operation was off 23 percent. The drop-off has been apparent to longtime club members like Peter M. Brooke, whose home borders one of the golf courses. “I try to work out three times a week in the fitness center, and if there’s two or three members there, that’s a lot,” said Mr. Brooke, a 74-year- old Democrat who has been a member since 1992, long before Mr. Trump bought the resort. “Very often I’m the only person in the members’ changing room. Golf has also been very quiet. I’ve noticed far fewer conventions.”

The club has recently had disputes with some members who have been told they will have to wait many years, if not decades, to get refunds on golf club membership deposits, The Miami Her- ald reported this month. Five members have asked Mr. Brooke to find them a lawyer willing to sue the resort to get their deposits back, he said, though he intends to keep his membership. The property has struggled since Mr. Trump bought it out of bankruptcy in 2012 for a reported $150 million. The resort lost $2.4 million in 2014. In 2016, shortly after $250 million in renovations were completed, the PGA Tour an- nounced that while Mr. Trump was running for president it was moving the resort’s annual golf tournament — which had brought international attention to the site for more than five decades — to Mexico City. The Trump Organization has disputed suggestions that the golf club has struggled, beyond acknowledging a local drop in demand after a Zika virus out- break in 2016 and Hurricane Irma in 2017. “Doral is doing great and had its best year in 2018,” the Trump Organization

said in a statement in May, explaining the performance of its real estate hold- ings last year. The resort has benefited, in at least some ways, from Mr. Trump’s time in office. Records show that the golf club has collected at least $1.4 million in payments from Republican political groups, making it the third-most frequent fund- raising venue for political operatives. The two others are the president’s Mar- a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and the Trump International Hotel in Washing- ton, according to an analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Wash- ington. Since taking office, the president has repeatedly allowed the conduct of his official duties to be entangled with the fa- cilities he owns. He hosted President Xi Jinping of China at Mar-a-Lago for a summit in 2017. He has made presidential stops to his golf club in Ireland. And he frequently conducts business or attends events at other locations he owns, including the Trump hotel in Washington and his club in Bedminster, N.J. Many past presidents have hosted world leaders at their private homes.

But the difference is that none were for- profit businesses that generate revenue flowing directly to the benefit of the president and his family, said Walter Shaub, a former director of the Office of Government Ethics. Mr. Shaub and others said the use by Mr. Trump of his property for official business would violate the Constitu- tion’s emoluments clause, which pro- hibits presidents from receiving gifts or payments, including receiving financial benefit, from foreign governments. Sev- eral state attorneys general, ethics groups and Democratic lawmakers have sued the president. Several of those suits have been dismissed by the courts. But Mr. Trump’s use of his properties to date would pale in comparison to a huge gathering surrounding the annual Group of 7 meeting, a possibility that The Post first reported in June. “From Day 1, Trump has used our country to boost his name and his organization, instead of focusing on the real economic problems Americans are fac- ing,” Terrie Rizzo, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, said in a statement. In a later news conference on Monday with President Emmanuel Macron of France, Mr. Trump defended his pro- posal and insisted that he would not profit from holding the summit at his resort. “In my opinion, I’m not going to make any money — I don’t want to make money,” he said. “I think it’s just a great place to be.” In Biarritz, Mr. Trump did not address possible ethical concerns about holding the summit at Doral. Instead, he touted the property’s proximity to Miami Inter- national Airport, about a 20-minute drive away. “You’ll only have a five-minute drive,” he told Ms. Merkel.

Trump has just the place for the G7: His golf resort

DORAL, FLA.

BY PATRICIA MAZZEI,
MICHAEL D. SHEAR
AND ERIC LIPTON

Patricia Mazzei reported from Doral, Fla.; Michael D. Shear from Biarritz, France; and Eric Lipton from Washing- ton. Peter Baker contributed reporting from Biarritz and Susanne Craig from New York. Alain Delaquérière contributed research.

“The Doral probably is a location that could hold it,” a hotel consultant said. “But there are a hundred places that this type of event could be held in the United States.”

JOE SKIPPER/REUTERS

President Trump put the most glaring spotlight to date on his willingness to flout traditional ethical boundaries.

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The New York Times International - 29.08.2019

French leader raises his global profile

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