The Trump International Hotel, located in a 19th-century neo-Romanesque building, closes its doors.
Built in the 1890s, the 12-story building, the former post office, is the third tallest in the US capital.
The demolition was condemned several times, and the building was saved short in 2011 when Donald Trump promised to invest $ 200 million in its renovation.
The hotel opened in the fall of 2016, just months before Donald Trump entered the White House.
The night before at Franklin’s Suite, a large skylight glows on the bar you sip the $ 140 worth of wine glasses served in Hungary Crystal, including $ 12,000 for breakfast.
“This is a place he can be very proud of,” Donald Trump’s spokesman Sean Spicer told his first White House press conference in January 2017. “I think he’s representative of that genre. The administration he leads.”
“Disagreement”
By taking office as President, Donald Trump handed over control of his real estate empire to his two eldest sons, promising not to interfere in the operation of his assets.
In fact, he promoted it at every opportunity and the Trump International Hotel retained its influence.
Anti-corruption NGO CREW reports that during his presidency, 150 officials from 77 foreign countries went to the assets of the Republican billionaire.
U.S. political groups have spent a total of $ 3 million to organize about 40 events at a hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue.
And according to the NGO, influential groups such as the American Petroleum Corporation have repeatedly organized events at the hotel after meetings at the White House. And many have had a lucrative political downfall.
Chosen over Washington’s promise to “clean up the sewer”, “Donald Trump should never be allowed to own his hotel,” reprimanded Noah Bookbinder, president of CREW.
When asked about mixing his president’s privileges in promoting his vast real estate empire, Donald Trump defended himself in 2016: “The law is completely on my side, and presidents can not conflict with interest”.
$ 70 million loss
However, the survival of the Trump International Hotel was short-lived.
A parliamentary inquiry has found that a hotel under President Trump lost more than $ 70 million, hoping to “exaggerate” its profits.
The Trump organization called the report “deliberately misleading, irresponsible and undoubtedly misleading” and “political harassment.”
The group did not comply with AFP’s demands.
But many American media outlets have reported very low aggression rates, especially due to epidemics.
The Trump organization has allocated a lease of the building in the first months of 2022 for a reported sum of $ 375 million to fund an investment plan to reopen the hotel under the name Waldorf Astoria.
This did not satisfy the critics.
“When he was not in power, the embarrassment subsided,” the head of CREW points out, “it’s too small, too late.”