An ethics watchdog group has released a damning report that sheds light on the swampy relationship between Donald Trump and the GOP. Specifically, the report focuses on the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which Trump sold in May 2022 for a reported $375 million and has since been rebranded as a Waldorf Astoria.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, found that during Trump’s presidency, the D.C. hotel brought in more than $3 million from “Republican political organizations,” more than any other Trump property during that time period. During a 17-month period after Trump sold the property, from June 2022 until the end of November 2023, the Waldorf Astoria pulled in $37,878 from those same folks.
For comparison, GOP groups spent $1,570,239, or 40 times that, in the interval between June 2018 and November 2019—the last comparable period when the building was still under Trump ownership. In fact, the amount spent since it opened is just a quarter of the $154,500 that then-Speaker Paul Ryan’s joint fundraising committee spent there in a single day in 2018, and a fraction of the $435,034 that Republican groups have spent at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and residence, since the Waldorf Astoria opened.
Remember how in 2019, then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told the press that Trump hotels were “just like any other hotel”? It’s a mere coincidence that, according to Forbes, McCarthy spent a whopping $740 at Trump businesses in the 10 years prior to his presidency. McCarthy, who ascended to the position of speaker in no small part due to his ability to fundraise big donor dollars, isn’t known for his frugal spending of PAC money.
McCarthy’s excuses ring about as true as Jan. 6 mob target and former Vice President Mike Pence’s. Back in 2019, he defended his decision to stay at Trump’s golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland, as “logical.” The logic of the hotel being situated 140 miles away from any of his scheduled engagements, making it necessary for Pence to fly to his meetings in Dublin, remains an enigma.
Ever since Trump seized control of the Republican Party, he always seems to benefit from campaign money—his own as well as others. GOP candidates spent a reported $4.2 million at Trump-owned properties in the run-up to the 2018 elections. The location near Capitol Hill that Republican customers cited as convenient seems not to have mattered much at all since Trump’s physical proximity to it disappeared. According to CREW, during the Trump administration:
141 individual Members of Congress have visited Trump properties 344 times. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham tops this list with 27 visits, followed by Sen. Rand Paul, and Reps. Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, and Kevin McCarthy. The majority of these visits (284) have been to the Trump Hotel in D.C.
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Conveniently located just blocks away from the White House, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. is the most popular property for federal, state, and foreign government officials to visit. Public officials have visited the property 973 times. Mar-a-Lago is next with 385 visits, followed by Trump National Bedminster with 181 visits, Trump National Golf Club in Virginia with 138, and Trump National Golf Club West Palm Beach with 110 visits from public officials.
Everybody remembers how RICO-indicted Trump vowed he was going to “drain the swamp” when he got to Washington. Not surprisingly, Trump instead dragged more swamp creatures into positions of power. Even less surprising is the fact that Trump’s D.C. hotel, with all of the pay-to-play money coming into it, was reportedly a losing deal—like most of Trump’s business endeavors.
It is primary season, and Donald Trump seems pretty low energy these days. Kerry and Markos talk about the chances of Trump stumbling through the election season and the need to press our advantage and make gains in the House and Senate. Meanwhile, the right-wing media world is losing its collective minds about Taylor Swift registering younger Americans to vote!
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