Trump lied about money-bleeding DC hotel while president, House committee finds, as usual suspects call for his arrest

Donald Trump claimed his Trump Hotel in DC brought in $150 million while he was in the White House, but a House committee has issued a damning report claiming the hotel actually suffered more than $70 million in losses.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee has claimed the former president provided “misleading information about the financial situation” of his Washington, DC Trump Hotel in public filings. Instead of the $150 million he said it made in income, it actually lost over $70 million, the committee reported in a Friday memo.

The information apparently came from documents obtained from the General Services Administration, which also showed that from 2017 to 2020, the Trump International Hotel located in DC took in $3.7 million in payments from foreign governments. According to the committee, such transactions raised “concerns about possible violations of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause” - a topic which was frequently broached during Trump’s tenure but never effectively pursued.

The committee also noted that Deutsche Bank, which lent Trump $170 million to purchase and remodel the hotel in DC, had allowed him to pause payments on that loan while serving in the Oval Office - a “significant benefit from a foreign bank” he should have disclosed, they argued. His alleged concealment of hundreds of millions of dollars in debts while bidding on a historic Washington, DC building known as the Old Post Office also prevented the GSA from effectively performing its job, making it impossible to “properly enforce the lease’s conflict-of-interest restrictions.”

The committee has requested further documents from the GSA, including anything related to the Deutsche Bank loan, due diligence it performed on Trump’s financial records, loans by Trump or his other businesses to the hotel, and foreign government payments to the hotel.

“For too long, the president has used his complex network of business holdings to hide the truth about his finances,” committee head Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) declared in the press release, vowing to “vigorously pursue [the committee’s] investigation until the full truth comes to light so that Congress can address the unresolved ethics crisis left by Trump and prevent future presidents from profiting off of the presidency.”

However, it’s hard to think of any president in recent decades who has not in some way managed to parlay the presidency into lucrative speaking gigs, public appearances, book deals, and all manners of other well-paid pursuits. Even members of presidential cabinets and appointed heads of intelligence and military agencies have raked in big money thanks to their political postings. However, most at least make a show of trying to wait until after they’re done “serving the country” before they begin cashing in.

The anti-Trump contingent on social media was delighted to hear of the real estate mogul’s misfortunes, with #TrumpIsBroke quickly shooting to the number one trending hashtag in the US.

Others pointed out that despite Trump’s gold-plated ‘Art of the Deal’ persona, his properties aren’t always big money-makers and he has had to declare bankruptcy more than once.

Trump was booted off the Forbes 400 richest people list earlier this week, though the publication admitted he had maintained his level of wealth - it was merely other billionaires who’d grown fatter off the Covid-19 pandemic.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!