Reports: Trump selling DC hotel for $375 million

Fla. investment group plans to rebrand 263-room lodging as a Waldorf Astoria

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s opulent hotel near the White House that drew lobbyists and diplomats seeking favor with the former president as well as criticism as a symbol of his ethics conflicts is being sold to a Miami investment group, according to published reports citing anonymous sources.

CGI Merchant Group agreed to pay the Trump Organization $375 million for the rights to the 263-room hotel and has plans to rebrand it as a Waldorf Astoria, according to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter.

Neither the Trump Organization nor CGI responded to requests for comment.

The deal is expected to close next year after which the hotel will be managed by the Waldorf Astoria under a separate deal struck by CGI, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Waldorf Astoria business is owned by Hilton Worldwide Holdings.

The hotel has been a money loser for the Trump family since it won rights to convert a stately federal building called the Old Post Office from the federal government under a lease that, with extensions, can run nearly 100 years.

The Trump Organization poured $200 million to convert it into a luxury hotel, opening its doors in late 2016, shortly before Trump became president. It then proceeded to lose more than $70 million over four years, according to audited reports obtained by a House committee investigating Trump’s conflicts of interest with the business. The losses came even before the pandemic led to shutdowns.

Ethics experts urged Trump to sell the hotel and other business holdings before he took office, but Trump refused and the hotel soon became a magnet for the powerful and power seeking: Lobbyists for industries trying to shape policy, Republican politicians looking for a presidential imprimatur, and diplomats from Azerbaijan, the Philippines, Kuwait and other countries.

Looming over all the din in his glittering lobby was the question: How much were decisions made by Trump a few blocks away in the Oval Office being shaped by his financial interests and, even if not at all, why risk tarnishing U.S. policy with even the appearance of conflict?

Trump dismissed such worries. The Trump Organization promised to send a check to the U.S. Treasury each year equivalent to profits from foreign government patrons, a response to criticisms he was violating the emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution forbidding foreign government gifts.

It’s not clear how much money the Trump family is making from the sale given that terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Sales of hotels sometimes include “earn outs” in which the seller is only handed all the money promised if the buyer hits certain financial goals in the years after the deal closes.

The Trump family was originally hoping to get $500 million for the hotel when it first put it on the market in the fall of 2019. It was pulled off the market, then put back on this year.