The Trumps Are in Talks To Reclaim Their Prized D.C. Hotel

Donald Trump’s real-estate company is in talks to reclaim its former Washington, D.C., hotel, a move that could offer an early test of how the president-elect will handle potential conflicts of interest.

Eric Trump this week met at his family’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with an executive from merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners, which controls the long-term lease on the hotel, according to people familiar with the matter.

An executive vice president at the company, Eric Trump discussed purchasing the lease, though the talks are still preliminary and may not lead to any sale, these people said.

The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., is now a Waldorf Astoria and operates in the Old Post Office building, which is owned by the federal government and was leased to the Trumps. Trump opened the hotel in 2016, but sold the lease rights in 2022 for $375 million.

Now, the family firm is looking for a hotel in the capital as Trump prepares to return to the White House, and the family remains interested in its former property, said people familiar with the matter. Reacquiring the hotel rights could cost more than $300 million, according to people familiar with the property’s operations and revenue.

Hilton, which owns the Waldorf Astoria brand, has a long-term management agreement with the hotel. That arrangement would continue under a new leaseholder. But the Trumps might be able to negotiate a new deal and resume operation of the property as a Trump hotel.

During his first term, Democrats alleged that Trump’s financial stake in the hotel violated a constitutional provision known as the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which prohibits a president from receiving things of value from foreign or state governments. Critics said that would apply to foreign officials who spent lavishly on Trump hotel suites, at the restaurant and on room service.

The Trump Organization said at the time that it doesn’t market the hotel to foreign dignitaries and that it wrote a check to the U.S. Treasury Department for money made from foreign government guests.

Still, attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits tied to the emoluments clause. The Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of the litigation in 2021 shortly after President Biden took office, saying the issue had become moot.

If the Trump Organization buys back the rights to the hotel, those same legal and conflict of interest issues are likely to rise again. It is unclear what rules the organization or the White House will put in place to avoid potential conflicts, and the Trumps haven’t said much about how they will handle it.

“It’s too early to tell,” Eric Trump said in an interview shortly before the election last year.

The Trump Organization paused or pulled back from many of its business ventures during his presidency, though it has revived its global expansion in recent years. The company is building a second golf course in Scotland and has branding deals with residential projects in India and resort developments in Indonesia.

Trump agreed to manage and brand a golf and resort project in Oman, teaming up with Dar Al Arkan, a Saudi real-estate firm. The firm also has resorts, condominiums and other ventures in more than 10 countries.

But the Trumps may have a special attachment to the Washington, D.C., property. In 2012, their firm won a heated bidding contest for the long-term lease on the property, which with extensions ran close to 100 years. They beat out other real-estate investors and hotel companies, including Marriott International and Hilton, for the right to operate the property.

The hotel, just a short walk down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, quickly became a jewel in the Trump family portfolio. During the Trump years in the White House, it became something of a Republican clubhouse, attracting fans, lobbyists, lawmakers and others with business before the Trump administration.

In 2019, the Trumps hired real-estate firm JLL to see if there was a buyer for the property. At the time, Eric Trump said the prospect of selling the rights to the hotel was motivated partly by criticism that the Trumps were flouting government-ethics laws by profiting from the property.

“People are objecting to us making so much money on the hotel, and therefore we may be willing to sell,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

CGI Merchant Group bought the lease for $375 million and invested additional money in the property. The Miami-based investment firm defaulted on debt related to purchase in 2023. The following year, the lender BDT & MSD Partners foreclosed on the hotel and took control.

Since then, the merchant bank has been operating the property, which boasts some of the highest revenue per available room of any hotel in the city. It also features some of the largest guest rooms in the capital and suites with 18-foot high ceilings. A stay at a suite on Saturday starts at $1,395 a night, according to a recent search on the Hilton website.