Taxpayers will foot the bill....

Pence aide defends VP's stay at Trump resort in Ireland

By QUINT FORGEY

Vice President Mike Pence was invited, not instructed, by the president to stay at a Trump-owned resort during his trip to Ireland over the weekend, a top aide to the vice president said Tuesday, accommodations for which taxpayers will foot the bill.

"I don't think it was a request, like a command,” Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, told reporters. “I think that it was a suggestion."

Pence has been the subject of criticism from Democratic lawmakers for his decision to stay Monday night at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg during his time in Ireland. But Short said the decision to overnight on the opposite side of Ireland from Dublin was made based on Pence's ancestral connections to the region, as well as the logistical ease for the Secret Service of protecting a property it is familiar with.

From Trump Doonbeg, Pence embarked on a roughly hour-long flight Tuesday morning to Dublin to meet Irish President Michael Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

"It's like when we went through the trip, it's like, well, he's going to Doonbeg because that's where the Pence family is from. It's like, 'Well, you should stay at my place,’” Short said of Trump’s offer.

Short said the president’s proposal “wasn't like a, 'You must.' It wasn't like, 'You have to.'” He went on to describe Trump’s Doonbeg property as “a facility that could accommodate the team."

Short also said Pence’s stay at the Doonbeg resort constitutes “official business,” and Trump would not be covering the cost of the visit.

"No, this is following the normal procedures that we usually have,” Short said. “Because it has, again, the size that can we think can accommodate us and Secret Service can protect us."