During his four years as president Donald Trump bragged about his D.C. hotel, frequenting it almost weekly, and saying how successful it was. It quickly became the default place for foreign dignitaries, state and local GOP politicians, and lobbyists to drink, dine, and sleep, knowing their cash would wind up in the Trump family’s pockets.
But damning documents released by the House Oversight Committee Friday show the Trump International Hotel at The Old Post Office in Washington, D.C. lost $70 million during Trump’s tenure as president, CNN reports.
That’s not the only problem.
Those House Oversight documents, according Reuters, also show “Trump’s businesses tried to hide millions of dollars in payments from foreign governments that flowed through his hotel in downtown Washington D.C.” Some legal experts have argued that violates the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause.
And millions of dollars of that money, “over $3.7 million in payments from foreign governments…roughly equal to more than 7,400 nights at the hotel,” pose “a potential conflict of interest.”
In another damning revelation, as Reuters notes, the House Oversight Committee “also found that he concealed debts when he was bidding for use of the property in 2011,” which may raise the interest of federal prosecutors.
Despite losing $70 million, Trump took “income from the Trump International Hotel,” CNN reveals, totaling “more than $156 million…the committee said Friday.”