President Donald Trump apparently forgot to book a hotel room in Hamburg, Germany, for the annual Group of 20 summit of key global leaders, and was stuck scrambling to find somewhere to stay, BuzzFeed reported Thursday.
The White House apparently waited too long before making a reservation for Trump and his traveling staff for the summit, which begins on Friday. All the luxury hotels in the city were completely booked by other world leaders, leaving the US president — who made his name in business building, uh, luxury hotels — without a place to stay.
A local German news outlet, Hamburger Abendblatt, reported on Wednesday that the US government wanted to stay at the Four Seasons, but they were turned away because it was already booked.
The delegation from Saudi Arabia had actually already claimed the Four Seasons, as well as rooms in several other nearby hotels. Saudi King Salman won’t be at the summit — a former finance minister is representing the country instead, according to Financial Times. But the king usually travels with a huge entourage, camels for fresh camel milk, and a golden escalator, according to Stern, a Hamburg-based weekly news magazine.
Weeks before the summit, there were reports that Trump and his team would have to stay in Berlin and fly to Hamburg by helicopter, according to BuzzFeed.
It’s unclear where Trump will be sleeping, but the Associated Press is reporting that he’ll be staying at the official Senate guest house in Hamburg. His staff will stay at the US Consulate General in the city.
This isn’t the first time that the Trump administration has run into problems finding accommodations. When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attended a G20 meeting in Germany earlier this year, he had to stay at a sanitarium in a small village known for its hot springs, according to Bloomberg.
All the hotels in Bonn, the city hosting the conference, were booked by the time Tillerson confirmed he would be attending.
So why does this keep happening? It might have to do with the fact that the State Department is currently understaffed and unorganized. Only nine key positions out of 124 have been confirmed at the State Department.
No one has even been nominated as the director in the Office of Foreign Missions, which is responsible for planning and providing security for US missions when diplomats and other top officials travel abroad.
As the G20 summit ramps up on Friday and into the weekend, there’s a good chance that Trump will continue to face potentially embarrassing situations as he comes face to face with world leaders who have mocked him in the past.
'Welcome to Hell' protesters clash with police outside G-20 summit
German police clashed with protesters before a G-20 summit in Hamburg on Thursday, tarnishing the outset of a meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel hopes will cement her role as a stateswoman as she seeks re-election in September.
Merkel, who is campaigning for a fourth term, can ill afford images of chaos and disharmony. The summit, which starts in full on Friday, is a chance for her to polish her diplomatic credentials but would be disastrous if marred by violence.
She met U.S. President Donald Trump for an hour on Thursday evening, but less than an hour later police clashed with anti-capitalist demonstrators near the summit venue and fired water cannon at black-clad protesters after they threw bottles.
A Reuters eyewitness saw at least one protester with blood on his face being treated. "Welcome to Hell" was the protesters' greeting for Trump and other world leaders arriving for the two-day meeting.
Merkel has taken a high-risk gamble by choosing to hold the summit in the northern port city of Hamburg, partly to show the world that big protests are tolerated in a healthy democracy.
Before meeting Trump, she struck a consensual tone, holding out hope for agreement on the divisive issue of climate policy and pledging to broker compromises. She pledged to represent German and European interests at the summit, but added:
"On the other hand, as hosts we—and I—will do all we can to find compromises."
Trump faces a testy confrontation at the summit with leaders of the other big Group of 20 economies after deciding last month to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris climate deal.
Agreement could yet be found on climate, Merkel indicated.
"There are various options, which can be discussed. We know that the United States have withdrawn. All others ... or as far as I know, many many others stand by this agreement," she said.
As the leaders began holding informal meetings, thousands of protesters from around Europe, who say the G-20 has failed to solve many of the issues threatening world peace, poured into Hamburg to join the main demonstration.
Police expected around 100,000 protesters in the port city, some 8,000 of whom are deemed by security forces to be ready to commit violence. Up to 20,000 police officers are on hand.
Delicate balance
As summit host, Merkel must seek consensus among the G-20 leaders not only on the divisive issue of climate policy but also on trade—an area fraught with risk as Trump pursues his 'America First' agenda.
Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Merkel must be careful not to allow acrimony to undermine the summit.
"There is quite a delicate balance that Angela Merkel will have to navigate in a way, because it is not clear that being confrontational won't just create even more of a credibility problem for G-20 cooperation," she told Reuters.
Merkel earlier said she was committed to an open international trading system, despite fears of U.S. protectionism under the Trump administration.
"We're united in our will to strengthen multilateral relations at the G-20 summit ... We need an open society, especially open trade flows," Merkel said in Berlin.
She and Trump discussed G-20 themes, North Korea, the Middle East, and the conflict in eastern Ukraine, a German government spokesman said. Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan is among other leaders Merkel was to meet.
Trump, who earlier in Poland called again on NATO partners to spend more on defense and said he would confront the threat from North Korea, is also due to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit.
Their meeting, scheduled for Friday, will be closely watched at a time when mutual ties remain strained by U.S. allegations of Russian election hacking, Syria, Ukraine and a U.S. row over Trump associates' links to Moscow.
Ahead of the meeting, Putin threw his weight behind the Paris accord.
"We see the Paris Agreement as a secure basis for long-term climate regulation founded on international law and we want to make a comprehensive contribution to its implementation," he told German business daily Handelsblatt.
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