Silke Jasso
In a letter to the Trump Organization on Thursday, the General Services Administration ruled that President Trump’s Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., is not in violation of lease terms that prohibit government officials from profiting from the property.
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A clause in the hotel’s lease states that “no member of delegate to Congress, or elected official of the United States […] shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom.” However, the letter from GSA determines that the president’s hotel is in “full compliance,” because Trump has made arrangements to wall himself off from the its revenue, such as transferring control of his business empire to his adult children.
“In other words, during his term in office, the president will not receive any distributions from the trust that would have been generated from the hotel,” Kevin Terry, the GSA’s contracting officer, wrote in the letter.
The Trump Organization issued a statement thanking the GSA for its “diligent review of this matter,” adding, “We are immensely proud of this property and look forward to providing our guests with an unrivaled luxury experience for years to come.”
Ethics experts and some Congressional Democrats maintain that the hotel is a concern because guests, including foreign government officials, can win the president’s favor by spending money there.
