Do conflicts reside in Trump’s hotel?

WASHINGTON — Last April, telecom giant T-mobile announced a megadeal: a $26 billion merger with rival Sprint, which would more than double T-mobile’s value and give it a huge new chunk of the cellphone market.

But for T-mobile, one hurdle remained: Its deal needed approval from the Trump administration.

The next day, in Washington, staffers at the Trump International Hotel were handed a list of incoming “VIP Arrivals.” That day’s list included nine of T-mobile’s top executives, including its chief operating officer, chief technology officer, chief strategy officer, chief financial officer and its outspoken celebrity chief executive, John Legere.

T-mobile executives have returned to President Donald Trump’s hotel repeatedly since then.

By mid-june, seven weeks after the merger announcement, hotel records indicated that one T-mobile executive was making his 10th visit to the hotel. Legere appears to have made at least four visits, walking the lobby in his T-mobile gear.

These visits highlight a stark reality in Washington. Trump the president works at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Trump the businessman owns a hotel at 1100 Pennsylvania.

Countries, interest groups and companies like T-mobile — whose future will be shaped by the administration’s choices — are free to stop at both. Such visits raise questions about whether patronizing Legere Trump’s private business is viewed as a way to influence public policy, critics said.

Legere said last week that he chose the Trump hotel for its fine service and good security.

“It’s become a place I feel very comfortable,” Legere said. He also praised the hotel’s location, next to one of the departments that must approve the company’s merger.

After The Post published its article online, a Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission — which would have to approve the merger — tweeted her concern. “This does not look good,” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wrote.

Later in the day, Legere used Twitter to respond: “I trust regulators will make their decision based on the benefits it will bring to the US, not based on hotel choices.”

Rooms at the hotel routinely cost more than $300 per night. Trump’s hotel also has hosted parties put on by the Kuwaiti and Philippine embassies, rented hundreds of rooms to lobbyists paid by Saudi Arabia and hosted a large meeting of the oil industry’s lobbying group.

Eric Trump, who is running the family business with his brother, Donald Trump Jr., said the hotel has “absolutely no role in politics.”

Coincidentally on Wednesday, the inspector general of the General Services Administration said the agency improperly “ignored” the Constitution’s emoluments provision outlawing foreign gifts when it greenlit Trump’s management of the hotel after his election.

GSA watchdog Carol F. Ochoa’s report did not say whether Trump had violated the Constitution, but it urged a legal review, which the GSA has promised.