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

Plus: Stimulus Update: House Democrats Considering New, Smaller Relief Package

My book, White House, Inc.: How Donald Trump Turned the Presidency into a Business, came out on Tuesday. It’s a sweeping expose that investigates every aspect of the president’s business, including his exclusive clubs, luxury hotels, overseas partnerships, and personal mansions. Below, we offer an excerpt, explaining how Trump made a $100 million mistake by retaining ownership of his hotel empire. It turns out, his flashy properties in D.C. and Miami, which so many people have assumed are cash cows, are in fact money pits.

Mind On Their Money

Trump Tower has collected $1.6 million from the president’s campaign, including $38,000 last month. In all, Trump has moved $2.3 million from his presidential campaign to his private businesses.

Oil tycoon Kelcy Warren gave $10 million to a pro-Trump super-PAC last month, according to FEC files. Other billionaires donated over $3 million to the group last month.

Billionaire Jennifer Pritzker, a former Trump donor, made her first contribution of $2,000 to Joe Biden last month. Pritzker gave more than $250,000 to committees supporting Trump in 2016. But after Trump announced a transgender military ban in 2017, she spoke out against it.

Mary Trump sued the president and other family members Thursday claiming they committed fraud and civil conspiracy by cheating her out of her multimillion-dollar inheritance, two months after she made similar claims in her bestselling tell-all memoir.

The massive financial impact of the pandemic becomes clearer as 46% of households in the U.S. report facing severe financial problems during the Covid-19 crisis—about three in ten households (31%) report using up all or most of their savings during the coronavirus outbreak.

Global Economy

Canada-based social media company Hootsuite said Thursday it will no longer do business with U.S. immigration authorities after an employee tweeted the firm signed a contract with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement this week, despite internal protests. The status of the contract is unclear because a company called FCN, Inc. already signed a $508,832.48 contract on September 18 to provide “Hootsuite licenses” to the agency.

The Trump administration is pitching a new rule that would sharply limit some international college students’ time in the United States, part of a proposal slated for release Friday that marks one of Trump’s broadest attempts yet to restrict foreign students.

TikTok’s parent ByteDance has applied for an export license in line with the Chinese government’s new regulation on the sale of AI technology, as it seeks Beijing’s approval for its proposed deal to sell a 20% stake in the video-sharing platform to Oracle and Walmart.

Britain’s finance minister, Rishi Sunak, has unveiled a new jobs support scheme for U.K. workers that will replace the nation’s furlough scheme when it ends next month, but warned that not every job can be saved as the impact of coronavirus on jobs and the economy is expected to continue into the winter months.

EDITOR'S PICKS

The Election That Could Break America (The Atlantic)

Here's Everything Trump Has Said About Refusing To Give Up Power (Forbes)

Who Is Amy Coney Barrett, Front-Runner For The Supreme Court Nomination? (NPR)

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