Mayor Tom Tate has issued a formal apology after swearing at a journalist during a heated press conference regarding his now infamous dinner with US President Donald Trump.
Mr Tate fronted the media on Wednesday, 24 hours after he told an ABC reporter to “f— off” as he stormed out of the fiery media conference.
He admitted his behaviour was wrong.
“The Gold Coast is a city that’s innovative and unapologetic but in the case of yesterday’s interview, as far as I’m concerned, I was out of line using a swear word even though [I was] frustrated and I absolutely apologise to all the journalists that were there and to the people who saw it right throughout Australia,” Mayor Tate said.
“A bit of frustration, but you know when you wear the mayoralty role you’ve got to rise above that and for that I didn’t do my job.”
The Mayor also addressed the ongoing confusion regarding his dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate back in February, after the White House denied his version of events.
Mr Tate is adamant he did speak with Mr Trump on the patio at the event, saying they discussed issues with proposed tariffs on the Gold Coast’s movie industry, before he enjoyed dinner with a larger group that did include the President.
“We had conversations outside before dinner and that conversation I relayed to the council,” he said.
“Any conversation I had during the dinner time when we’re enjoying ourselves, I’m keeping that private.”
The Mayor has also refused to confirm how much he spent on the trip, after initially declaring it was paid for by the Trump Organisation before changing council records to confirm it was all paid for at his expense.
However, he insists he has done everything by the book and has ruled out referring himself to the Office of Independent Assessor.
“That’s not up to me, that’s up to whoever wants to refer it,” he said.
“I’m not going to self refer because I don’t feel like I’ve done anything wrong.”
