Pence Is Staying at Trump’s Ireland Hotel 180 Miles From His Meetings in Dublin

Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Dublin on Tuesday to meet with Irish leaders. Rather than stay in Ireland's capital during the trip, though, Pence, his family, and his staff and security will all be lodging at the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, on the opposite side of the country, which is about 300 kilometers (180 miles) from Dublin. That's slightly over a three-hour drive, though Pence will be traveling between the cities on Air Force Two.

Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff, defended the decision to stay at one of Donald Trump's properties, saying that the Secret Service was already familiar with it. According to The Washington Post, when reporters pressed him on whether or not the president ordered Pence to stay there, Short demurred, saying, "I think that it was a suggestion."

While Donald Trump has theoretically handed over management of his business and properties since becoming president, he's retained ownership and refused to put his financial arrangements into a blind trust. According to Reuters, Pence claims he is personally paying for his family members on the trip. But as the vice president, he travels with a large detail of staff and security, including the Secret Service, whose accommodations and travel would be covered by taxpayers.

Use of the president's properties is under scrutiny for self-dealing concerns. In a single trip in February 2017, the Secret Service spent $20,000 at a Trump hotel in Vancouver while protecting Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Tiffany Trump. Attorney General William Barr has reportedly booked a $30,000 holiday party at Trump's hotel in Washington, D.C. And the federal government signed an agreement in April 2017 with Trump Tower in New York to rent office space in the building at $130,000 a month, for a grand total of $2.39 million through the duration of the lease, according to The Wall Street Journal.

CNN commentator Keith Boykin called Pence's decision "an impeachable offense." Conservative columnist David Frum also condemned the move, saying, "Normal federal employees go to prison for such schemes." And Democratic congressman Ted Lieu of California tweeted, "You took an oath to the Constitution, not to @realDonaldTrump. Funneling taxpayer money to @POTUS by staying at this Trump resort is sooooooo corrupt."

But the vice president's accommodations weren't the only bit of news to come from his diplomatic trip. Judd Deere, special assistant to the president, used the trip as an opportunity to spin some positive PR for Pence. The vice president has a long history of being antagonistic toward the LGBT community—he claimed that same-sex marriage was a sign of "societal collapse," opposed anti-discrimination laws that would make it illegal to fire employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and argued that funds for HIV/AIDS treatment should be denied to groups that "celebrate and encourage" homosexuality. On Monday, Deere claimed that Pence can't be homophobic if he's meeting with Leo Varadkar, Ireland's openly gay prime minister, tweeting, "For all of you who still think our @VP is anti-gay, I point you to his and the @SecondLady’s schedule tomorrow where they will join Taoiseach @LeoVaradkar and his partner Dr. Matthew Barrett for lunch in Ireland."

Chasten Buttigieg, husband of openly gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, responded on Twitter, saying, "I’ve sat at tables with people who would gladly deny me the right to marry, who openly support conversion therapy, and who adamantly believe being gay is a choice. Doesn’t mean they’re any less homophobic because we shared a meal."

Politics

Mike Pence—who’s quietly launched his own PAC and already begun glad-handing big dollar donors—is shocked (shocked!) by the rumors that he might be laying the groundwork for his own presidency. Fake news, he calls it. But while the veep doth protest, Republicans are already imagining the outlines of a post-Trump Washington—and the first moves of a Mike Pence White House.

Originally Appeared on GQ