Suffice it to say that the FAR system includes elaborate safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest and self-dealing in the award of government contracts…

Donald Trump’s participation in the decision to award the 2020 G-7 summit to his own property is wildly, insanely contrary to everything the FAR system was designed to accomplish…

The fact that the president and his staff directed the “process,” if we can even call it that, is about the only thing we know about how this decision was made. We know that Trump was directly involved because White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney admitted that it was Trump’s idea in the first place. And we know that some kind of “process” took place because Mulvaney said that the administration examined 10 sites before choosing Trump Doral.

What we don’t know is who else participated in the decision. Or what agency actually made it. Or anything else about the process.