Former President Donald Trump’s family business will soon be handing over the keys to his beloved Washington, D.C., hotel for a cool $375 million, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The paper said that a Miami-based investment firm, CGI Merchant Group, was set to acquire the lease on the Trump International Hotel, a notorious venue for alleged conflicts of interest while its namesake was president. Sources familiar with the deal said the firm intends to drop the Trump name from the building, which will instead be branded and managed by the Hilton’s Waldorf Astoria group.
Upon the Trump family company’s purchase of the hotel in 2012, it pledged to spend $200 million renovating the building, originally a 19th century post office. The hotel, a hotspot for Republican players and Trump cronies of all shapes and sizes after Trump became president, generated roughly $150 million in revenue during its short lifetime, according to some of Trump’s financial disclosures. But the House Committee on Oversight and Reform also found the hotel bled cash over its four years of life, losing more than $70 million between its 2016 opening and 2020. The Trump family has claimed otherwise, even as it has come under withering criticism for appearing to invite those seeking influence to patronize the place. The panel, which is investigating Trump’s conflicts of interest while in office, has not said if the sale will affect its ongoing probe.
Read it at The Wall Street Journal
