The real reason Donald Trump is suddenly selling off his Washington DC hotel
Here’s a move no one saw coming. Right in the middle of Donald Trump’s impeachment, even as he’s taking on water from all sides and losing court battles by the day, he’s suddenly decided he wants to part ways with one of the very few of his hotel properties that’s actually doing well. As is so often the case with all things Trump, something doesn’t smell right here.
So what’s going on? Let’s go ahead and rule out some explanations that initially seem obvious but don’t logically hold up. Yes, this is the same Trump hotel in DC that’s at the center of the Emoluments Clause case. But there’s no reason to believe that Donald Trump is selling it off just to make the case go away; he still doesn’t know if he’s going to win or lose that case, or when.
Trump has a long and consistent history of dumping his properties because they’re poorly run financial failures. But let’s rule out this notion when it comes to his DC hotel, because it’s one of the few Trump properties that are actually doing well during his presidency. Sure, most of the general public doesn’t want to stay in his overpriced dump. But he’s routinely steered the business of foreign officials and others to this particular hotel, which is down the street from the White House, and is by all accounts doing fine financially.
There’s an interesting theory being floated by Politico that perhaps Donald Trump is selling off this hotel (technically selling off the hotel lease) because it’s become too much of a liability in terms of Trump’s people congregating there and reporters overhearing what they’re discussing. But this doesn’t feel like the kind of strategic thinking that Trump would employ. He’s running the kind of loose ship where his lawyer Rudy Giuliani butt-dials reporters and accidentally gives away secrets about the Turkey scandal.
When you look at the fact that Donald Trump’s Washington DC hotel is one of his very few argable properties, the unique role it plays in foreign governments funneling money into Trump’s pocket, and the manner in which his political flunkies rely on it, we’d argue that this is just about the last property he would want to sell off (other than Mar-a-Lago). This leaves another plausible explanation, and one that’s not good for Trump.
When you’re a failed businessman with a bunch of failing properties, and you’re too cash-poor to keep them afloat, and you’re too much of a credit risk for banks to be willing to keep you afloat, you find yourself in the unenviable position of having to sell off the few properties that are doing well for you. After all, they’re the only ones that you can fetch a decent price for. Donald Trump’s smoke and mirrors real estate empire has always been mired in debt and short on cash. Now he’s preparing to face huge legal bills in the impeachment fight. Is he so short on cash, he’s being forced to sell off his most valuable hotel?
