You can still see the faint outline of Trump’s name on the facade of the Old Washington, DC Post Office, which from the former president’s election year until May was home to the Trump International Hotel. Sitting just below the White House, it was the site where, according to accounting documents obtained by the House Oversight Committee, foreign officials and governments paid more than $10,000 a night to stay while Trump was in office.
Records show that in the first two years of Trump’s presidency, six foreign governments spent a total of more than $700,000 on the Trump Organization-owned hotel. This includes $280,000 from Qatar, $250,000 from Malaysia, $90,000 from Saudi Arabia and $74,000 from the United Arab Emirates. The sensational tabs often coincide with major diplomatic and foreign policy events.
The House Oversight Committee is investigating the Trump Organization’s financial dealings during Trump’s tenure and any conflicts of interest that may have arisen. “These documents strongly call into question the extent to which President Trump was driven by his personal financial interests while in office rather than the interest of the American people,” committee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (DN.Y.) wrote in a statement released released on Monday. .
The most productive spend at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. (at least according to these documents) was Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose delegation spent a whopping $259,724 during an eight-day visit to DC that included ponying up for the $10,000-a-night presidential suite. At the time of his visit, Razak was embroiled in a Department of Justice embezzlement investigation. Eventually charges were brought against members of Razak’s circle, but not Razak himself.
The incidental expenses don’t end there. During Qatar’s 2017-2018 diplomatic crisis, which resulted in Saudi Arabia and the UAE embargoing the nation, all three parties conducted financial transactions with the hotel while simultaneously lobbying the Trump administration for support. The Saudi Ministry of Defense spent $85,961 during a critical week in March 2018 where, according to Maloney, “Saudi and Emirati officials reportedly pressured President Trump to remove [Secretary of State Rex Tillerson] for his role in intervening to stop a Saudi invasion of Qatar last summer.” Tillerson was fired by Trump on March 13.
Maloney noted in a letter to the National Archives, requesting additional documents, that “between January and early March 2018, the Sheikh Al Thani family, the ruling family of Qatar, booked an extended stay at the Trump Hotel, spending over $300,000 before a summit between Trump and Emir Tamim bin Hamad.
Similar cases of incidental spending include Turkish lobbying and advocacy groups, which together spent a total of $86,000 on the hotel while the Justice Department investigated state-owned Turkish bank Halkbank. Coincidentally, then-Attorney General Bill Barr stepped in and negotiated a no-charges settlement.
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The investigation by the House Oversight Committee is one of several financial probes that the former president and the Trump Organization are currently struggling to overcome. The House Ways and Means Committee won a major legal victory in August over its efforts to obtain Trump’s tax returns. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Trump and three of his adult children, alleging financial fraud perpetrated under the Trump Organization umbrella.
The Trump Organization completed the sale of the hotel to CGI Merchant Group in May 2022. While Trump’s name may have been cut from the facade, it remains a persistent monument to the excesses of his presidency.
