MIAMI, FL — President Trump gathered with Latin American heads of state Saturday at his Miami-area golf club for what the White House described as a “landmark hemispheric security summit” and what the State Department’s official readout described, in the precise and carefully considered language of people who had reviewed the readout several times, as “a productive meeting among regional leaders.”
The summit — held at a private club owned by the president, attended by leaders from nations whose relationships with the United States involve significant trade dependencies, security assistance arrangements, and in several cases active diplomatic negotiations, and catered by a kitchen that sources describe as having “an exceptional shrimp cocktail” — brought together the heads of government of eight Latin American nations for what the agenda described as “frank discussions on regional security, economic cooperation, and the challenges facing the Western Hemisphere.”
The challenges facing the Western Hemisphere include: the ongoing U.S. military operation in Iran, which has driven oil prices to $94 a barrel, which affects every economy in the hemisphere; active U.S. military operations in Ecuador targeting drug trafficking organizations; a fuel blockade of Cuba; a stated presidential interest in acquiring Greenland; and the general geopolitical orientation of an administration that has described several of the attending leaders’ predecessors as insufficiently cooperative, a description that the attending leaders have clearly internalized in the way that people internalize information when they are attending a meeting at someone’s private club.
The Venue Question, Which Nobody Asked Out Loud
The diplomatic protocol question of whether a sitting president should conduct official multilateral summits at his own private business — a business that charges membership fees, hosts paying events, and benefits commercially from the visibility of being the site of presidential diplomacy — was not raised at Saturday’s summit, according to pool reporters who were allowed into the opening remarks and then asked to wait outside, which is a sentence that contains more information than it appears to.
The ethics office, which is a real office that assesses conflicts of interest involving federal officials, did not issue a public statement about the venue. The White House communications office, when asked, said the venue was chosen for its “excellent facilities and convenient location.”
“Convenient for whom” is a question that Supposedly News asked. The answer is that the Miami-area golf club is convenient for the president, who owns it. It is also convenient for several attending leaders who have connecting flights through Miami, so the answer is: multiple parties.
What Was Discussed
According to the official readout, leaders discussed “regional security cooperation,” “economic partnership,” “migration challenges,” and “shared values regarding democracy and rule of law” — a list so standard it could have been generated by a template called “Latin American Summit Readout v3.0” and possibly was.
What the readout did not mention: Cuba, whose fuel blockade affects several attending nations’ energy and migration situations directly. Greenland, whose potential acquisition was described by at least two European leaders this week as setting a precedent with regional implications. Ecuador, where U.S. forces are currently conducting operations. The TikTok situation, which involves a China-connected app and a sale being brokered by people close to the administration, which has Latin American technology policy implications.
“The readout describes a general meeting,” said Dr. Carlos Fuentes, a Latin American foreign policy specialist at American University, reviewing the document. “There is nothing wrong with a general meeting. General meetings can be valuable. But a general meeting at the height of a Middle East war, an oil price shock, a hemispheric fuel blockade, and an ongoing Ecuador operation is a very specific kind of general meeting.”
The Shrimp Cocktail
Four attending delegations, through spokespersons who asked not to be named, confirmed to Supposedly News that the shrimp cocktail was excellent. One delegation said the ceviche was “also very good.” One delegation declined to comment on the food, which Supposedly News interprets either as diplomatic discretion or as the ceviche having been fine but not exceptional.
The golf course was available but was not used during the formal summit portion. Whether any bilateral side conversations occurred on or near the golf course is not confirmed. The White House readout does not mention golf. This is, Reginald P. Farnsworth notes, the one true diplomatic win of the day: nobody played golf on the record.
Supposedly News reached out to all eight attending delegations for comment. Five responded with some variation of the official readout. Two did not respond. One said “the shrimp was very good” and then appeared to regret saying it, which we found relatable.