The former head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics used a lengthy Twitter thread to explain what he believes should be the real concern about U.S. military personnel staying at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.
Walter Shaub wrote Friday that the focus should not be on whether Trump had ordered anyone to stay there, which he doubted, or even on when anyone first stayed there. Instead, he said, it was to do with “the questions raised by these trips.”
“Has [Trump] created a culture where officials believe he wants people to stay at his properties?” asked Shaub, who served under former President Barack Obama and then Trump for six months until he resigned in July 2017.
“We can see how many of his appointees perceive an expectation to socialize after hours at Trump hotel (an activity that was not traditionally common at that level of the exec branch),” he noted.
“He dispatches his VP and appointees to speak to his paying customers. He tweeted that officials who stayed at Turnberry showed ‘good taste,’” Shaub continued. “He takes his appointees on his frequent trips to his luxury resorts. He touts those resorts frequently. He’s bidding on the G7 Summit.”
Shaub claimed it was “implausible” to say it was a coincidence that military personnel stays at Turnberry had risen since Trump took office, a development that is being investigated by both the Air Force and the House Oversight Committee.
It “degrades the ethical culture of government” and “damages our standing in the world and our effort to preach anticorruption efforts to developing countries,” he added.
“Bottom line: Turnberry is a big deal because it’s a symptom of a problem in an administration that is anything but transparent,” Shaub concluded.
Check out Shaub’s full thread here:
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/walter-shaub-donald-trump-turnberry_n_5d7c9225e4b03b5fc88420e5