It seems as though former President Donald Trump may be trying to bulk up his cash funds as the investigations in New York continue to mount against him, with a new report from the Washington Post claiming that Trump is now taking a second stab at selling the lease to the Trump Organization’s Washington, DC Trump hotel.
The ex-president’s business, which is currently at the center of investigations on both a city and state level in New York, attempted to sell the Pennsylvania Avenue hotel back in 2019, but ultimately took it off the market after the sale was impacted by the economical effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that Trump himself all but allowed to run rampant through the nation. But now it seems that as the dust settles surrounding the pandemic, the Trump Org. is taking another shot as they reportedly hired a broker to help rid themselves of the property for a good chunk of change.
According to The Post, the former president’s business has hired real estate advisory firm Newmark Group to get the property that they lease from the General Services Administration on the market.
Thus far the Trump Organization has not responded to requests for comments while the Newmark Group has declined to comment on the sale altogether, according to Business Insider.
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Back when Trump’s company first tried to rid themselves of the lease The Post reported that rooms within the hotel were running almost half-empty with the property’s overall revenue falling by more than 60 percent last year. Things didn’t seem to improve for the Trump-run hotel either as they continued to face multiple financial hurdles, including the economic impact of the pandemic and the major hit to Trump’s brand name following the January 6th insurrection.
The organization’s second attempt to get out from under the lease comes on the heels of New York District Attorney Letitia James’ announcement that their investigation into the Trump Organization has officially turned criminal and the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s announcement that he was convening a grand jury to pour over the evidence he has collected in his investigation against the ex-president.
So far it’s unclear whether or not the D.C. hotel will actually play a role in Letitia James’ investigation. The Post notes that the Pennsylvania Avenue property has not been named in any public filings relating to the case so far. However, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Vance’s office is investigating a variety of Trump’s properties in connection to their case, the D.C. hotel being one of them.
Trump got his hands on the Old Post Office property before he was elected in 2016, and ultimately stirred up a slew of backlash as he continued to conduct personal business while he was president, prompting numerous allegations of conflict of interest.
In fact, the Trump International Hotel was the epicenter of many a lawsuit accusing the then-president of violating the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution, a rule that bars public officials from receiving gifts or cash from foreign or state governments without express permission from Congress — something Donald Trump did on the regular through his properties.
Financial disclosures have since revealed that Trump raked in at least $40.8 million from the single hotel in 2018 alone.
Now, it seems, he’s just hoping to be able to pay his lawyers.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
