Trump Plans to Bring Back His Cesspit of Corruption in D.C. Hotel
Donald Trump is looking to reclaim one of his most useful tools of corruption: the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the president-elect’s real estate company is in negotiations to take back the hotel, which is owned by the federal government but currently leased to the Hilton hotel chain. Eric Trump met with the bank in control of the hotel’s lease at Mar-a-Lago this week, according to sources who spoke with the Journal, although the discussions were inconclusive.
The Trump International Hotel was a hotbed for corruption and foreign conflicts of interest during Trump’s first term. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, for example, spent at least $259,724 at the hotel in 2017 while he was under investigation for money laundering. He used the presidential suite, which at the time was $10,000 per night.
Saudi officials spent at least $164,929 from late 2017 through 2018, and Trump approved a $1.3 billion weapons sale to the country shortly afterward. In all, at least six governments spent more than $750,000 at the hotel during Trump’s first administration.
“Anyone looking to curry favor with his administration could simply walk over to his namesake hotel a couple of blocks from the White House and flash cash,” executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Noah Bookbinder said in 2021.
The hotel is now a Waldorf Astoria. The Trumps could reacquire it for at least $300 million.