There was the hourlong motorcade to the airport in Shannon, where he arrived at 9:30 a.m. Then the flight to Dublin, where Air Force Two landed at 10:29 a.m., and finally a short drive to Aras an Uachtarain, the presidential residence, and his meet-and-greet with Mr. Higgins, which started at 11:11 a.m.
The lengthy commute was necessary because of Mr. Pence’s choice of hotel: Rather than spending Monday night in Dublin, the vice president stayed 181 miles away by car on the other side of Ireland — at the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg.
The person who suggested he stay there was the hotel’s owner himself, President Trump.
“I don’t think it was a request, like a command,” Marc Short, Mr. Pence’s chief of staff, told reporters traveling with the vice president. “I think that it was a suggestion.”
...
Over all, at least 24 of the 32 individuals who have served in Mr. Trump’s cabinet and 26 of the 53 Republicans in the Senate have been spotted at or spent money at Trump International Hotel in Washington, according to a tally maintained by Zach Everson, who tracks visits to the hotel by foreign dignitaries, members of Congress and other Republicans.
“In a way it is business as normal,” said Mr. Everson, whose newsletter, called 1100 Pennsylvania, examines patronage by the politically connected at the hotel in Washington. “This is the way Republicans are supporting the president, by supporting his businesses.”
The Pence/Doonbeg moment reminds me of the part of Michael Cohen’s testimony where he said Trump doesn’t explicitly order people to do questionable things, that he speaks in a manner that heavily insinuates it and expects subordinates to get the message: https://t.co/JJMYid185F https://t.co/kuWXFwLzly— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 4, 2019
It's Mafia-speak.
