Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, defended Pence’s choice of out-of-the-way lodging during his trip to Ireland. Pence is staying at a Trump-owned property more than an hour’s flight from Dublin, where his meetings are taking place. Short said that President Donald Trump merely “suggested” that he stay there.
“I don’t think it was a request, like a command … I think that it was a suggestion,” Short told reporters, according to NBC News. “It’s like when we went through the trip, it’s like, well, he’s going to Doonbeg because that’s where the Pence family is from. It’s like, ‘Well, you should stay at my place.'”
Pence’s taxpayer-funded stay has whipped up widespread anger. Yet it’s another example of Trump seemingly using his position to enrich his private businesses. Just last month, he floated that next year’s G7 summit be held at another one of his properties, in Miami.
