The Trump International Hotel in Washington opened just before election day in 2016. It has become what CNN calls the “defacto clubhouse for his administration’s officials and supporters.” But how is it doing financially? An investigation by CNN found that the occupancy level of the hotel is about 50% through the first eleven months of 2017, which is 27% lower than the Washington average for luxury hotels. The room rates are 40% higher than other luxe hotels in D.C., averaging $559 a night (!) to $334 for other high-end properties. So are the high prices enough to offset the lower occupancy? Good question and one Trump properties refused to answer.
And then there are those pesky emolument lawsuits. Many have been filed but one case is actually proceeding in Maryland federal court where the state and the District of Columbia allege payments to the Trump properties amount to illegal gifts and violate the emolument clause of the Constitution. If the case is allowed to proceed, and the judge seemed to favor the state’s argument over lawyers from the Department of Justice, we could get a peek into the financial records of Trump’s hotel empire. The Attorney General for the District of Columbia called Trump’s D.C. hotel a “den on iniquity” where money could buy influence.