US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said he will host the 2026 G20 summit at his own golf resort in Miami – despite abandoning a similar move in his first term after accusations of corruption.

It comes as he signed an executive order renaming the Department of Defence as the Department of War – a long-telegraphed move aimed at projecting American military toughness around the globe.

Billionaire Trump said his Trump National Doral resort and spa was the ideal choice for the G20 gathering in December next year because it is “beautiful” and the Florida weather is nice.

“Everybody wants it there because it’s right next to the airport, it’s the best location, it’s beautiful, a beautiful everything.”

But Trump, who has faced repeated accusations that he and his family have enriched themselves during his two presidencies, insisted he would not profit from the event.

“We will not make any money on it. We’re doing a deal where it’s not going to be money, there’s no money in it. I just want it to go well,” Trump said.

Trump was born in New York but has made Florida his home for years, with his Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach and the Doral resort nearer the sprawling metropolis of Miami.

A sign for the G20 to be hosted in Miami in 2026 is displayed as President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

He had made similar plans to host the 2020 G7 summit at the Doral resort during his first presidency.

But it caused a firestorm among Trump’s Democratic opponents, who called it “among the most brazen examples yet of the president’s corruption.”

He later ditched the plan with a swipe at “media and Democrat crazed and irrational hostility” – and the summit eventually never took place because of the Covid pandemic.

Trump at the time also abandoned a plan to invite Russia despite its suspension from the G7 because of its annexation of Crimea.

But this time Trump said he would be open to Russian President Vladimir Putin attending the G20 despite Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine – adding that he would also welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He added however that they would be “observers, and I’m not sure if they’d want to come as observers” – despite the fact that both Russia and China are G20 members.

Trump meanwhile confirmed that he would skip this year’s G20 in South Africa and send Vice President JD Vance instead.

The US president had previously said he was unlikely to go, citing debunked claims of white citizens being systematically persecuted and killed in the country.

It comes as Trump signed an executive order renaming the Department of Defence as the Department of War.

“It’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now,” Trump said. He said the previous name was “woke”.

The order comes as some of Trump’s closest supporters on Capitol Hill proposed legislation that would codify the new name into law, with Congress having the sole power to establish, shutter and rename federal departments.

Absent a change in law, Trump will authorise the Pentagon to use secondary titles.

“From 1789 until the end of World War Two, the United States military fought under the banner of the Department of War,” Florida Republican Greg Steube, an Army veteran, said in a statement.

“It is only fitting that we pay tribute to their eternal example and renowned commitment to lethality by restoring the name of the Department of War to our Armed Forces.”

Republican senators Rick Scott and Mike Lee are introducing companion legislation in the Senate.

The Department of War was created in 1789, then renamed and reorganised through legislation signed by President Harry Truman in 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War.

The Department of Defence incorporated the Department of War, which oversaw the Army, plus the Department of the Navy and the newly created independent Air Force.

- © AFP 2025