Trump Hotel took $3.7 million from countries including China, Kuwait, Turkey, India, Brazil, Romania.
Washington:
A short walk from the White House, the Trump International Hotel is a magnificent neoclassical palace steeped in Washington lore for more than a century.
The towering atrium with large skylights glitters the lobby bar in the winter sunlight as the nation’s powerful brokers enjoy $140 glasses of wine served with Hungarian crystals, or $10,000 classic Macallan scotch glasses.
After a drink, guests with $385 to spare can rejuvenate with a “hydrafacial” skin treatment downstairs before reclining on designer linens in one of the 263 guest rooms. strictly wood paneled.
“It’s a beautiful place,” one-time White House spokesman Sean Spicer said of the hotel, which will become the Waldorf Astoria in the new year, ending six years of Donald Trump’s ownership.
“It’s a place he’s very proud of, and I think it’s emblematic of the kind of government he’s going to run.”
Spicer turned out to be right.
Trump promised to “drain the swamp” of corruption in Washington, but instead opened his own quagmire on Pennsylvania Avenue – leading to a dizzying array of conflicts of interest.
During Trump’s four years in office, the 19th-century Romanesque Revival-style hotel has become a magnet for top donors, corporate lobbyists and foreign governments seeking to find ways spend big in the hope of gaining influence.
“The law is completely on my side, meaning the president can’t have a conflict of interest,” Trump said in 2016 when asked about combining day-to-day work with advancing his vast business empire. me.
‘Influencing street vendors’
The lobby group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) tracked 150 officials from 77 foreign governments who visited Trump’s property during his presidency.
According to a congressional investigation, the Washington hotel grossed $3.7 million from countries including China, Kuwait, Turkey, India, Brazil and Romania.
The Philippine government told a television station in its home country that the decision to use the hotel for the 2018 Independence Day celebrations was “a statement that we have a good relationship with this president.”
The client group raised concerns about the potential violation of anti-corruption provisions written by the nation’s founders that restrict the receipt of gifts to positions from foreigners.
“Donald Trump should never have been allowed to keep his DC hotel as president,” said CREW head Noah Bookbinder.
“He should have divested himself of it along with the rest of his businesses before taking office. Instead, he spent four years using it to influence peddlers. and violate the constitution.”
In total, domestic political groups spent $3 million at the hotel during about 40 political events under Trump.
According to CREW, special interest groups, such as the American Petroleum Institute, often participate in White House meetings along with a hotel event, and many have secured favorable policy outcomes.
AFP has reached out to the Trump Organization, but has had no response.
The former president gave control of his businesses to his two adult sons and a trustee when he entered the White House, promising not to get involved when in fact promoting the locations at every opportunity. .
Meanwhile, the Trump Organization commits to donating profits from foreign governments to the US Treasury Department.
Built in the 1890s, the 12-story Old Post Office that houses Trump International is the third tallest building in the capital, after the Washington Monument and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
$12,000 a night
Scheduled to be demolished several times, it got relief in 2011 when Trump tricked Hilton and Hyatt with a bid that pledged $200 million for a makeover.
The hotel opened in the fall of 2016, months before Trump entered the White House, making the new president his host, violating a clause that prohibits elected officials from “sharing any portion” of the contract. to rent.
An AFP review found that the cheapest room around the end of November will cost $512 a night. A night in the Franklin Suite, including breakfast in bed, is on sale for an amazing $12,109.98.
But sky-high prices do not translate into profits.
Investigators in Congress discovered the hotel had lost more than $70 million during Trump’s presidency, concluding that he had “overstated” its profits.
The Trump Organization called the report “intentionally misleading, irresponsible and clearly false” and described it as “political harassment.”
But reports in the US media have noted low occupancy as Trump International has struggled to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Trump Organization sold the lease for a reported $375 million to an investment fund that plans to reopen the hotel in the early months of 2022 as the Waldorf Astoria.
“The Trump Hotel DC stands as a neon-lit signboard for foreign and money-hungry people how to bribe the president and a stark reminder to Americans that his decisions as a member of the president’s office are not a problem. being president is in his interest as much as it is in our interests”, CREW’s Added bookbinder.
“Sell it now when he’s lost his job and dry, to say the least, too little, too late.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
