Donald Trump’s Washington hotel lost more than $70 million during his time in the White House, despite receiving millions in payments from foreign governments, according to federal documents released Friday.
The documents “raise new and troubling questions about former President Trump’s lease,” which was managed by the General Services Administration, according to a letter from the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The losses occurred even as the Trump International Hotel took in an estimated $3.75 million from foreign governments and received favorable terms from Deutsche Bank AG, which allowed Trump to defer payments for six years on the principal of a $170 million loan, according to the letter. The lender cut ties with Trump following the January Capitol riot.
“The Committee’s letter makes several inaccurate statements regarding Deutsche Bank and its loan agreement,” Deutsche Bank spokesman Daniel Hunter said in an email. The Trump Organization didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The committee has been “investigating conflicts of interest related to GSA’s management of the hotel’s lease” for the past five years, according to its chair, Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York, and Representative Gerald Connolly, chair of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, who also signed the letter.
Trump’s net worth is $2.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, down from about $3 billion when he entered office.
The D.C. Hotel is one piece of Trump’s complicated portfolio of properties, which largely suffered during his presidency, in part because of the pandemic that kept people from going into the office and traveling to hotels—two core pieces of Trump’s business.
The Trump Organization got a boost earlier this year when a partner in one of its most valuable assets, Vornado Realty Trust, refinanced debt on an office tower in San Francisco. Trump holds a 30% stake in the property and the deal generated a $617 million cash-out for its owners.
The Trump Organization is in the process of trying to sell various properties, including the D.C. Hotel, which it first put on the market in 2019 for $500 million. The Trump Organization has said it attracted what would be record bids “north of $350 million” that the company rejected.
Those who’ve gone public with their offers have cited much lower figures. Brian Friedman, a D.C. Real estate investor, said he offered around $160 million. He doesn’t think there were many other serious suitors.
Trump himself said in 2012 that he paid too much for the property—a promised $200 million to renovate the historic Old Post Office and $3 million in annual base rent. Friedman said he’d need 80% occupancy and a high average daily rate to make buying worth it.
The broker handling the sale, Jones Lang LaSalle, quit in January after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, just one mile to the east. Back on the market, the sale is now being led by Newmark.
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