Trump businesses stable in ’19
Delayed yearly financial disclosure shows modest gains before pandemic
Before the coronavirus ripped through the country, upending President Donald Trump’s family business and the broader hospitality industry, the company last year showed modest gains, according to Trump’s annual financial disclosure report released last week.
The report, which offers the only official public detailing of the president’s personal finances, had been delayed for months after Trump received two extensions.
The delay came in part based on questions the Office of Government Ethics had raised about, among other issues, the value of pro bono legal work provided to the president by Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, according to people with knowledge of the delay.
As the U.S. economy was humming in 2019, the Trump Organization reported revenues of at least $446.3 million, up more than 2% from $434.9 million, in 2018. In 2017, he reported at least $452.6 million in revenues.
The report shows that last year’s revenues, while an improvement over 2018, still reflect the toll Trump’s divisive presidency has taken on his brand.
The president reported assets worth at least $1.35 billion, down narrowly from
2018 and 2017.
The disclosure, required every year under federal ethics rules, was originally due May 15. The White House blamed the delay on the pandemic, but it also followed conversations between ethics officials and representatives for Trump about a draft of the filing, including discussions over Giuliani’s free legal work, according to the people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The 78-page disclosure was the sixth by Trump since he announced his candidacy in 2015.
Unlike the past six presidents, Trump has refused to release his tax returns, leaving additional gaps in the public record of his finances, and even went to court to block their release.
For much of Trump’s presidency, his family business was stuck in neutral. The family name was stripped from several properties. The pipeline of potential new deals had dried up. And Trump’s polarizing politics had generated a red-blue divide among many properties, leaving his hotel in
Chicago struggling, for instance, while his golf club in North Carolina thrived.
Results were mixed again last year, according to the disclosure statement.
Revenues grew about 2% at the North Carolina club and Trump National Doral Miami, the company’s biggest money generator. The resort had been particularly stung by the divide over the president’s politics, as revenues sagged after his election. Another golf club, at Bedminster, New Jersey — which Trump often visits during the summer — saw revenues rise by 12.6%, while his club in Jupiter, Florida, was up 11.9%.
But at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump often spends time during the winter months, revenues were $21.4 million, down 5.5% from 2018, continuing a downward trend from 2017.
At the Trump International Hotel in Washington near the White House, revenues were $40.5 million, falling just shy of 1% from 2018.
At the company’s only remaining New York hotel, on Central Park West, revenue was between $1 million and $5 million, the same range as reported for 2018. Last year, the company agreed to downsize the “Trump” signs on the premises after some owners of the adjoining condominium tower complained that the branding was hurting their property values.