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Plus: Trump’s $100 Million Mistake: How Retaining Ownership Of His Hotels Cost The President A Fortune

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Washington, D.C., is full of monuments to presidents, but none quite like the Trump International Hotel. A bottle of chardonnay from the Trump winery in Virginia goes for $68. A seafood platter called the Trump tower, which includes a puny lobster and a dozen oysters and clams, runs $120. And a hamburger goes for $26.

The only free thing on the menu? The ever-present cocktail of money and power, which anyone can absorb simply by peering around the lobby.

Revenues at the brand-new hotel were $6 million in January 2017, the month of his inauguration. The business turned a one-month profit of $1.6 million. In addition to all the money coming directly from Trump’s billionaire buddies—Vegas tycoon Phil Ruffin spent $18,000 a night on a suite—$1.5 million reportedly flowed from the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Based on those numbers, reports senior editor Dan Alexander, at least 25% of the revenue that Trump’s hotel generated his first month in office came from Trump’s own political donors. It pays to be the president.

Or perhaps, paid. On July 24, more than three years after the D.C. hotel opened, Forbes valued it at $168 million, less than the $170 million mortgage the Trumps used to fix up the place. The rest of the money they put into the renovation—at least $30 million—currently looks like a total loss.

To put it simply: as President Trump has bragged about leveraging his business acumen to financially steward the country, he has managed to lose an estimated $100 million on just two hotels that look like cash cows, but in reality, seem to be money pits.

Read the full story here.

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