In October 2019, shortly before Covid hit and soon after I had “The Donald Trump experience,” President Trump scrapped his plans to hold the following year’s G-7 gathering of world leaders at the Trump National Doral in Miami. “Based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020,” he announced on Twitter late Saturday. “We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately.” Trump explained:
I thought I was doing something very good for our Country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 Leaders. It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, has tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have its own 50 to 70 unit building. Would set up better than other alternatives. I announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democrat Partners went CRAZY!
(Analysis: True.) We had here several trademarks of the Trump presidency. At the time I expressed my personal regrets over the change of plan. I had hoped to draw on my familiarity with the property to comment as events unfolded.
While the Republican Party nominated Donald Trump as its 2016 presidential candidate in convention assembled July 18-21, I spent the week at the Trump National Doral. I was attending the the Pritikn Health Resort & Spa located on the property.
Assigned to the Phil Mickelson Villa of the Trump National Doral Miami, I found my room stocked with products from the Trump Hotel Collection: Trump shampoo, Trump conditioner, Trump body lotion, all “Made in Canada.” I wondered at the time if the Trump Hotel Collection would survive a Trump presidency, but the thought of a Trump presidency seemed to me a remote possibility.
At my physical on the first morning of the Pritikin program, I waited with Rep. Charlie Rangel to meet with the staff physician for a history and exam. At age 86, Rangel was still representing New York’s 13th CD. “Charles,” as he was called by the staff, didn’t seem too happy to be recognized when I greeted him and introduced myself. I pursued “The Rangel angle” in a post later that week. Rangel stepped down from his seat at the end of that term after 46 years in office.
At age 93 Rangel has not disclosed the secret of his longevity. Pritikin can’t have hurt. In 2015 he credited the New York Post and Pritikin with helping him slim down. I learned that his 2016 visit was Rangel’s twelfth time around in the Pritikin program and that he planned a thirteenth visit in January 2017 following his retirement from Congress. At the time Pritikin featured a testimonial from Rangel as a success story.
Today I am returning to Pritikin at the Trump National Doral along with my wife for a week devoted to self-improvement — losing weight and lowering blood sugar, bad cholesterol, and high blood pressure. We also hope to discover a political angle or two, if not the Rangel angle.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.