President Donald Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Florida, canceled plans to host a tournament organized by a Miami-area strip club that would have allowed golfers to pay dancers to serve as “caddy girls.”
The Shadow Cabaret was scheduled to hold the “Shadow All Star Tournament” at the Trump National Doral Miami resort on Saturday, the Washington Post reports, adding that the strip club’s marketing materials “prominently” feature the Trump name and family crest.
Emanuele Mancuso, the Shadow Cabaret’s marketing director, told The Post that there would be no nudity but the “caddy girls” would be wearing pink miniskirts and a “sexy white polo.”
“They’re going to be clothed the whole time,” Mancuso said, but added that “at the venue is different,” explaining that the tournament would be followed by a “very tasteful” burlesque show that may involve nudity.
Mancuso said the dancers would drive a golf cart but would not carry golf bags.
“They’re actually going through training, most of the girls,” he said, so they can better advise players on shots. “If you enroll before the 10th [of July], you are able to pick out your caddie girl,” he added. “Everybody that enrolled after the 10th, they’re going to have an auction” that night.
The Trump Organization confirmed to the Post that the event was being hosted at the golf club to benefit a “worthwhile cause,” a Miami children’s charity called the Miami All Stars. Things begin to get questionable after that, according to the paper's reporting.
While Miami All Stars claims on its website that it is a “non-profit organization under the laws of the State of Florida,” Franco Ripple, a spokesman for the state, told the Post that it is not a registered charity in Florida. And although the ads for the event feature logos for the Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA, the NBA and WNBA told the Post that the leagues are not affiliated with the tournament and that the logos were used without permission. After the Post's report, the Miami Allstars Foundation dropped out of the event.
“The event was originally booked with the understanding that it would be raising money to support a local charity benefiting underprivileged children,” a Trump Organization spokeswoman said in a statement. “Now that the charity has removed its affiliation, the event will no longer be taking place at our property and all amounts paid will be refunded.”
The “Shadow All Star Tournament” is a far cry from the Doral Open, the PGA Tour tournament that the legendary Doral club hosted fore many years, beginning in the 1960s. The tournament continued to be played at the Doral after Trump bought the club for $150 million in 2012, but the PGA stopped holding the event at Doral after Trump began his presidential campaign in 2015. The tournament is now held in Mexico City.
Revenues at the Doral club have plummeted since Trump’s presidential campaign, falling by 69 percent in the last two years.
The falling profits have caused the Trump Organization to seek tax relief from Miami-Dade County. Tax consultant Jessica Vachiratevanurak asked the county to lower the property’s tax bill, arguing that the Doral club is “severely underperforming” relative to other nearby resorts. “There is some negative connotation that is associated with the brand,” she explained.
The Doral resort is just one of Trump’s properties that have struggled since he took office. His prized Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach saw revenues fall by nearly 10 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to Trump’s financial disclosure. The Post reported last year that at least 19 charities pulled their events out of Mar-a-Lago after Trump claimed there were “very fine people” marching with white supremacists in Charlottesville.
Revenues at his hotels in New York and Chicago are also down, his name has been stripped from numerous buildings, and Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Trump Tower has become “one of the least desirable luxury properties in Manhattan.”
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