Trump Has Reached Peak 'Level of Corruption' With Decision to Award G7 Contract to His Own Resort, Former Ethics Chief Warns

President Donald Trump has reached new levels of "corruption" by participating in the White House's decision to award the contract to host next year's Group of Seven (G-7) summit to one of his own resorts, Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, has said.

On Thursday, the White House announced that it had found the "perfect" location to host the intergovernmental summit: none other than the president's own hotel, the Trump National Doral, near Miami, Florida.

Mick Mulvaney, Trump's acting chief of staff said an "advance team" had identified the hotel as "the perfect physical location" for the event.

Shrugging off concerns that the contract would ensure that Trump profits personally from his presidency, Mulvaney said: "I think the president has pretty much made it very clear since he got here that he doesn't profit from being here."

To avoid the president making profit, Mulvaney said the event would be hosted "at cost," meaning it would be "dramatically cheaper" compared to the other dozen sites considered for the event.

His assurances, however, did little to quell the concerns of one of the country's top ethics experts, with Shaub revealing the announcement had left him "so angry" that he could "barely see straight."

"There is no level of corruption greater than a President participating in the award of a contract to himself," Shaub said in a tweet on Thursday evening.

"We have reached the bottom," he said.

If the Senate does not intervene, the former ethics chief said, "there is no government ethics program. It's over."

In a separate tweet, the former ethics office director said that "at this point, the ethics program is closed for business."

"We are at the ground floor," he stressed. "What comes next is subterranean. It's what happens when the ethics program has been razed to the ground and the villains break out shovels."

Despite his anger "about the Doral corruption," Shaub said that he wanted his last words on Twitter on Thursday to be about the late U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, who passed away due to complications related to longstanding health challenges, according to his office.

"I'm so angry about the Doral corruption that I can barely see straight and I have to get up early, so I'm going to bed," he said. "But I want my last words on Twitter today to be 'Elijah Cummings' in honor of a great American." So, he wrote: "Elijah Cummings."

Newsweek has contacted Shaub for further comment on the controversy.

The ethics expert was, of course, not alone in condemning the White House move, with Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the G7 summit venue choice, blasting the decision as "brazen" corruption.

"He is exploiting his office and making official U.S. government decisions for his personal financial gain," said Democratic New York Representative Jerrold Nadler, the Judiciary chairman.

Branding the move one of "the most brazen examples yet of the president's corruption," Nadler vowed that his committee would see its investigation through.

Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin (Maryland) said the venue choice was a "textbook case of unconstitutional conduct."

"President Trump's day of constitutional reckoning is fast approaching," he said. "This will not stand."