Donald Trump is turning into a magnet for misfortune. The news of him trying to sell his crown jewel, the Trump International Hotel Washington D.C., has been making the rounds since November 2019. The process was first delayed as the Covid-19 pandemic struck. This was followed by Trump hiring the brokerage firm Newmark Group to market the lease. However, according to documents released by the House Oversight Committee, Trump maintained that the iconic hotel racked up tens of millions of dollars.
The truth is far from it, as more than $70 million in losses have been incurred by the hotel business over four years of his Presidency. It’s hard to say if Trump gained anything at all from his Presidency. The man is still someone the world loves to hate; he suffered irreparable losses in all his businesses, from the legendary hotel in question to Trump Towers New York and even the Chicago property. The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform said that the documents provided by Mr. Trump exaggerated the financial health of the hotel.
Not only that but Trump’s holding company, DJT Holdings LLC, loaned more than $27 million to help the struggling hotel. On probing, it was found the Trump hotel received an estimated $3.7 million from foreign governments. The committee went guns blazing revealing detail after detail, further stating that General Services Administration documents showed that Trump received “undisclosed preferential treatment” from Deutsche Bank on a $170 million construction loan. Significant financial help was offered wherein he could delay making payments on a $170m loan for six years instead of one.
Not one to remain calm, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization pronounced the findings by the committee misleading. “Simply stated, this report is nothing more than continued political harassment in a desperate attempt to mislead the American public and defame Trump in pursuit of their own agenda,” the spokesperson said to CNN. Donald Trump happens to be the only President who lost money during his four-year tenure. Trump’s Presidency cost him a fortune, and his wealth dropped by more than $1 billion from the time he took office. If he had sold everything and put it all into index funds, he would be worth an additional $1.6 billion. Add to this the losses of over $70 million instead of the claimed earnings of $150 million.
The hotel just cannot get a buyer –
The Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. saw a revenue decrease of more than 60 percent compared to the prior year. This news coincides with Trump International Hotel scoring the top spot as the highest-rated luxury hotel in Washington DC with 1,600 5 Star ratings on Tripadvisor. The five-star hotel is located in a 122-year-old former Post Office building, for which Trump paid a monthly base rent of $250,000. The Trump Organization put in almost $210 million to renovate the property into a hotel that became synonymous with Trump’s tenure as President. During his Presidency, it was a central location for events and other discussions, bustling with lobbyists and supporters.
The mounting losses also forced Donald Trump out of the Forbes list –
Last year even with mourning debts and massive losses, Trump was worth an estimated $2.4 billion, enough to qualify for No. 1,299 on the Forbes billionaires list. Yes, he stumbled down by 300 points, but he did make it to the list nonetheless, after losing $1 billion. This year, things took a nastier turn as for the first time in 25 years, Donald Trump has not graced the prestigious Forbes list of 400 richest Americans. This year’s list has witnessed the man falling short of nearly $400 million from this year’s cutoff. He may still call himself a billionaire but not enough to join the ranks of the Musks and Bezos of the world. Today he barely enjoys a worth of $2.5 billion, but the fact is that the man has suffered losses of a whopping $600 million since the start of the pandemic. Naturally, it has shaken his position on a list where his name resided since 1996.
[Via – BBC]
