Donald Trump prepares to transfer his hotel in an emblematic building of Washington, where lobbyists, donors and representatives of foreign governments swarmed, willing to spend a lot in the hope of gaining some influence with the former president.
The Trump International Hotel in the American capital, located in a 19th century building reminiscent of the Romanesque style, will close its doors.
The Trump Organization sold the lease of the building for an announced amount of $ 375 million to an investment fund, which plans to reopen the hotel in early 2022 under the name Waldorf Astoria.
Built in the 1890s, the 12-story tower (a former post office) is the third tallest building in the United States capital and belongs to the state.
Destined several times for demolition, the construction was narrowly saved when in 2011 Donald Trump pledged to invest US $ 200 million in its renovation.
Thus, in 2013, the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages the federal real estate park, proposed a rental contract to the Trump Organization for 60 years with an option to extend it for another 40 years.
The hotel opened in the fall of 2016, a few months before Donald Trump entered the White House.
“It’s a place (Trump) is very proud of,” then-White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in his first press conference in January 2017.
“Interest conflict”
Upon assuming the Presidency, Donald Trump entrusted control of his real estate empire to his two eldest sons, promising not to interfere in the activity of his properties.
In reality, the former president promoted it every chance he got, and the Trump International Hotel, where a night in the Franklin Suite costs $ 12,000, has retained its influence.
During his presidency, 150 officials from 77 foreign countries passed through the property of the Republican billionaire, according to the anti-corruption NGO CREW.
A number of US political groups spent US $ 3 million to organize some 40 events at the hotel on the famous Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Donald Trump should never have been allowed to keep his hotel,” denounces CREW president Noah Bookbinder.
“The law is completely on my side, presidents cannot have a conflict of interest,” Trump defended himself in 2016, when asked about mixing his presidential prerogatives with the promotion of his real estate empire.
A short-lived hotel
The Trump International Hotel’s survival was short-lived. A parliamentary inquiry found that the hotel had lost more than $ 70 million during Trump’s tenure, noting that it had “grossly overstated” its profits.
The Trump Organization called the report “willfully misleading, irresponsible and wrong,” and called it “political harassment.”
The business group did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
However, several US media have reported that the hotel faces a very low occupancy rate, particularly due to the pandemic.
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