WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his suggestion of giving a speech from the White House accepting the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, after lawmakers and ethicists said it was inappropriate and possibly illegal to use a nonpartisan, public site as a venue for a political address.
“Well, it is legal,” Trump said when asked about his speech plans at a press briefing, arguing that the Hatch Act prohibiting leaders from trading on public goods for political gains does not apply to him. “If I use the White House, we save tremendous amounts of money for the government in terms of security, traveling.”
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert and Andrea Shalal; editing by Diane Craft)
