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Trump takes campaign break to open hotel

Author
AAP ,
Publish Date
Thu, 27 Oct 2016, 7:45AM
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has planned a detour from the campaign trail to formally open a new hotel (Getty Images)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has planned a detour from the campaign trail to formally open a new hotel (Getty Images)

Trump takes campaign break to open hotel

Author
AAP ,
Publish Date
Thu, 27 Oct 2016, 7:45AM

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has planned a detour from the campaign trail to formally open a new hotel in what a top aide said would remind voters of his business accomplishments less than two weeks before the election.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, in several television interviews, said on Wednesday the event in Washington would not detract from the campaign's efforts to rally voters before the November 8 election.

Trump, a real estate developer making his first run for elected office, is trailing his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in national opinion polls.

"It's a quick pit stop," Conway told CBS program This Morning, speaking at the Trump International Hotel, which opened for business last month about a mile from the White House.

Trump, a former reality TV star, has held numerous events at his properties since launching his White House bid in June last year, including a trip to Scotland to open a refurbished golf resort in June this year.

His campaign has stressed his credentials as a wealthy businessman, although Clinton and other political opponents have long pointed out that Trump's career includes business failures, and have also criticised him for not making public his tax returns.

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who led 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign, said the hotel stop was the latest inexplicable act from Trump and was atypical behaviour for someone trying to win the White House.

"The walls are collapsing," Schmidt told MSNBC in an interview. "He is not doing any of the normal activities that you'd be doing 13 days out in a presidential race for somebody who's competitive. You don't take a time-out to tend to your business interests."

Conway defended Trump's decision to leave the campaign for a business stop, noting that Clinton went to a concert by singer Adele on Tuesday night in Miami, where the former secretary of state celebrated her birthday. She turned 69 on Wednesday.

"Hillary Clinton has time to go to an Adele concert, and everybody thinks that's really cool. Donald Trump stops off to unveil just an incredibly stunning piece of architecture and new ... first-class hotel and everybody's hair's on fire," Conway told NBC's Today program.

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