CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Clinic said Tuesday that its foundation still expects to hold a fundraiser at a Florida resort owned by President Donald Trump later this month, despite calls for its cancellation after the president’s immigration ban ensnared a medical resident from Sudan.
Eileen Sheil said at a news conference that the event at Trump’s posh Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach was scheduled long before Trump was elected president.
“At this time, we have no further commitments to hold any events at that facility, but we will hold our event there at the end of this month which is very difficult to change at this time,” Sheil said.
Sheil’s comment came after the Clinic announced the return of Dr. Suha Abushamma, a first-year internal medicine resident who was detained at an airport in New York on Jan. 28 after arriving from Saudi Arabia. Abushamma, who holds a passport from Sudan, was sent back to Saudi Arabia, where she was there visiting family.
She was held a day after Trump signed an executive order banning travel from people from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Sudan. Federal judges have since blocked key parts of the order.
Abushamma arrived in Cleveland Monday but the Clinic withheld the information to announce it at their news conference.
The Clinic’s website says the “Reflections of Versailles: The Hall of Mirrors” fundraiser is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Feb. 25 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. The fundraiser will benefit the Cleveland Clinic Florida.
Sheil said the Clinic held the event there at Mar-a-Lago for the past eight years.
Sheil was also asked during the news conference whether the Clinic had any comment on Trump’s executive order. Sheil said it was a “really complicated time” but that the Clinic embraces diversity.
“We’re trying to stay out of the politics of this and really focus on making sure that we’re doing the right thing for our folks. Our employees, our caregivers, our researchers, our residents and our fellows who are very important to getting advanced patient care,” Sheil said. “So we’re not taking a political stance at this point but we are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to try to influence change.”
News of the fundraiser was controversial for many in the medical community who viewed Trump’s actions on immigration to be overbearing. Many of those critics work at the Clinic and signed a letter urging the Clinic to denounce its perceived ties to the Trump administration.
Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove also sits on a group that advises Trump on economic issues. Sheil said, when asked if he would resign in the wake of the executive order, that it would be shortsighted to give up a way to have the president’s ear.
“And I think that’s an important opportunity for us to have and to walk away from that, I don’t know if that’s going to do us any good,” she said.
She later added that, “a lot of things that we’re not saying publicly, you can be assured that things are happening behind the scenes and conversations are definitely happening.”
Cosgrove was interviewed for a role in Trump’s administration for the position of secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. He turned down the possible offer, the same one made by President Barack Obama in 2014.
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