Donald Trump Actually Lost $70M on His D.C. Hotel While in Office, Congressional Investigators Say
Steven Ferdman/WireImage Donald Trump
House Democrats on Friday unveiled new details about how well Donald Trump's personal business performed during his time in the White House, with documents showing that the former president's Washington, D.C., hotel incurred more than $70 million in net losses while he was in office.
The financial records — released on Friday by the House Oversight Committee — show that Trump's income from the Trump International Hotel reported in public financial disclosures dating from 2016 to 2020 totaled more than $156 million, the committee said.
But financial statements obtained by the committee show that the hotel, which opened just blocks from the White House months before Trump won election, suffered a net loss of more than $70 million during his administration.
The records also show that the hotel was loaned more than $27 million from one of Trump's holding companies between 2017 and 2020.
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The committee said Friday it found that Trump also received "undisclosed preferential treatment" from Deutsche Bank thanks to a $170 million loan with repayments deferred by six years.
Deutsche Bank AG and Signature Bank — both of whom had lent to Trump in the past — cut ties with him in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not respond to a request or comment on these records or the committee's characterization.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Donald Trump
Trump's finances have long been the subject of speculation, given that he did not divest his assets or place them in a blind trust while in office. He has also avoided disclosing many details of the closely held business.
Critics said this created perpetual ethics issues. House Democrats on Friday cited the Constitution's emoluments clause, forbidding a president from personally benefiting from foreign powers. The investigators said their analysis showed Trump's hotel had "received an estimated $3.7 million in payments from foreign governments" from 2017 through 2020.
(The Oversight Committee said the financial records were finally obtained from the government's General Services Administration related to how the agency had leased the Old Post Office building that became Trump's hotel.)
Trump, for his part, has long insisted maintaining his businesses while president was a burden, not a blessing. He claimed in 2019 his political turn had cost him at least $2 billion.
Outside analysis has shown the real estate magnate's net worth suffered during his presidency.
RELATED: Donald Trump Is Not on Forbes' 400 Richest Americans List for the First Time in 25 Years
James Devaney/GC Images Donald Trump
Forbes recently announced that its annual list of the 400 richest Americans does not include Trump for the first time in 25 years. The magazine reported that Trump's net worth — an estimated $2.5 billion — left him $400 million short of the cutoff to make this year's list.
Indeed, according to Forbes' analysis, Trump's failure to divest in many of his assets (including his real estate holdings) may have cost him.
While he would have had to pay a hefty amount in capital gains tax had he sold off his five most valuable real estate holdings prior to taking office (as had been urged by some due to the ethics issues), he could have added to his net worth simply by investing the proceeds into index funds.
The former president is currently facing mounting legal and financial challenges, including an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office and New York Attorney General into whether the Trump Organization misled lenders and insurance companies about the value of its properties (and whether it paid the appropriate amount in taxes).
He denies wrongdoing.
An earlier report by CNN found that Trump's eponymous properties outside of D.C. also faced financial challenges recently, with his Miami property bringing in 40 percent less revenue in 2020 than it did in 2019.
Revenue at the former president's Scotland resort was also down more than 60 percent year over year. According to The Guardian, Trump's Scottish golf courses have seen significant, million-dollar losses.
