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Trump hotel may be political capital of the nation's
capital
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A
few days later, major Republican donors Doug Deason and Doug Manchester, in
town for the president's address to Congress, sipped coffee at the hotel with
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
After
Trump's speech, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin returned to his Washington
residence — the hotel — and strode past the gigantic American flag in the
soaring lobby. With his tiny terrier tucked under an arm, Mnuchin stepped into
an elevator with reality TV star and hotel guest Dog the Bounty Hunter, who
particularly enjoyed the Trump-stamped chocolates in his room.
It's
just another week at the new political capital of the nation's capital.
The
$200 million hotel inside the federally owned Old Post Office building has
become the place to see, be seen, drink, network — even live — for the
still-emerging Trump set. It's a rich environment for lobbyists and anyone
hoping to rub elbows with Trump-related politicos — despite a veil of ethics
questions that hangs overhead.
"I've
never come through this lobby and not seen someone I know," says Deason, a
Dallas-based fundraiser for Trump's election campaign.
For
Republican Party players, it's the only place to stay.
"I
can tell you this hotel will be the most successful hotel in Washington,
D.C.," says Manchester, adding that he would know because he has developed
the second-largest Marriott and second-largest Hyatt in the world. Manchester
says Trump's hotel will attract people based on its location near the White
House and Congress, the quality renovation and the management team.
Then
there's also the access.
Although
Trump says he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of his businesses,
he retains a financial interest in them. A stay at the hotel gives someone
trying to win over Trump on a policy issue or political decision a potential
chit.
That's
what concerns ethics lawyers who had wanted Trump to sell off his companies as
previous presidents have done.
"President
Trump is in effect inviting people and companies and countries to channel money
to him through the hotel," said Kathleen Clark, a former ethics lawyer for
the District of Columbia and a law professor at Washington University in St.
Louis.
She
said the "pay to play" danger is even greater than it would be if
people wanted to donate to a campaign to influence a politician's thinking.
Spending money at a Trump property "is about personally enriching Donald
Trump, who happens to be the president of the United States."
The
White House strongly disputes there's any ethical danger in Trump's business
arrangements.
Trump
can see his hotel from the White House. When a Fox News interviewer mentioned
that to him recently, Trump responded, "Isn't that beautiful?" But
while the interviewer pointed out that he can see the property from his desk in
the Oval Office, Trump said, "I'm so focused on what I'm doing here that I
don't even think about it."
Still,
Trump couldn't resist the short trip over there for dinner on his only weekend
night out in Washington since becoming president.
A
reporter for the website Independent Journal Review was tipped off about
Trump's dining plans and sat at a table near him. He noted the president's
dinner fare and companions, who also included daughter Ivanka Trump and her
husband, Trump adviser Jared Kushner.
On
other nights, the posh hotel is the kind of place where on a mid-February
evening, you could bump into Trump television personality Katrina Pierson
having cocktails with Lynne Patton, a former Trump Organization executive who's
now working at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Trump campaign
and inauguration hands Tom Barrack, Boris Epshteyn, Nick Ayers and Rick Gates
are among the many who have stayed there in recent weeks.
Rooms
start at above $500 most nights, according to the hotel's website and a
receptionist. That's up hundreds of dollars from when the hotel first opened,
not long before Election Day. Patricia Tang, the hotel's director of sales and
marketing, declined to answer questions about how business is going.
The
hotel has become a staging area for big political events.
Eric
and Donald Trump Jr. posed for dozens of selfies with admirers the hotel that
bears their name before attending their father's White House ceremony in late
January to announce Judge Neil Gorsuch as the president's pick for the Supreme
Court.
Deason
ran into the Trumps and fellow Texas donor Gentry Beach while at a meeting at
the hotel that day with Trump's campaign adviser Rudy Giuliani. During
inauguration week, when Trump himself repeatedly visited, the hotel was
"literally the center of the universe," Deason said.
Last
Tuesday, as Trump gave his first address to Congress, lobbyists and politicos
watched the four large flat-screens above the bar, two tuned to Fox news and
two to CNN. In what hotel staff said was an effort to avoid some of the obvious
politics of the place, the TVs were muted, so people followed along on their
own devices.
As
Trump wrapped up, applause rose through the lobby and bar. Mnuchin waved to
admirers gathered in the bar as he strolled through after Trump's speech.
Mnuchin
is one of the New Yorkers working in Washington who call it home during the
week. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn is another. Linda McMahon, who
heads the Small Business Administration, also has been staying there.
Administration
officials "have been personally paying a fair market rate" for their
accommodations, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said.
Even
Trump's closest friends pay to stay.
Billionaire
Phil Ruffin, Trump's partner for his Las Vegas residential tower, said he
shelled out $18,000 per night while he was in town for the inauguration, which
he said surprised him since he'd given $1 million to Trump's inauguration
committee. Ruffin says he lightly complained about the high rate to the
president.
"He
said, 'Well, I'm kind of out of it.' So I didn't get anywhere, didn't get my discount,"
Ruffin recalled.
Trump's
continued ownership of his hotel and other businesses has spawned lawsuits and
ethics complaints, but so far no action on any of them. One accommodation Trump
says he is making on the ethics front is to donate profits from foreign
governments that spend money at his hotels.
Last week, Kuwait's
ambassador, Salem Al-Sabah, and his wife hosted a reception in the hotel's
presidential ballroom, in what was one of the first known instances of foreign
money changing hands with the hotel division of the Trump Organization since he
became president. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization did not respond to
questions about whether the money from the Kuwait Embassy has been or will be
donated
