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Trump International Hotel to be taken over by Waldorf Astoria

Trump branding to disappear from hotel a stone's throw from the White House

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A hotel that was opened just months before Donald Trump took office in the White House is set to be transferred to the Hilton group. The Trump International Hotel in Washington, long seen as a gateway for foreign dignitaries and moneyed interests eyeing presidential access, will be transferred to the Hilton-owned Waldorf Astoria brand on New Year’s.

The $375 million deal for the hotel was signed earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Miami-based CGI Merchant Group purchased its lease and has reached a deal with Hilton Worldwide Holdings to rebrand it and have it managed by the Waldorf Astoria group.

The hotel itself is located a short walk from the White House, down Pennsylvania Avenue. Though owned by the federal government (it was formerly a Post Office, the building itself having been constructed between 1892-1899), it is given out on lease. Trump Hotels had a 60-year lease on the building.

The sale comes as the House Committee on Oversight and Reform examines the lease, as part of a probe into how Trump managed alleged conflicts of interest while president. The probe found that the hotel made $70 million of losses while Trump was president, prompting the Trumps to invest over $26 million in aid (claims the Trump group has disputed).

Last year, a Washington Post report  found that the US Secret Service had to pay Trump's companies in order to protect him while he stayed at his own properties, including at this hotel. Trump International Hotel in Washington and the president’s clubs at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster received most of these 103 payments, the report found.

A spokeswoman told WSJ that the House committee would continue to investigate “conflicts of interest and potential constitutional violations raised by Donald Trump’s lease of this hotel from the federal government while he was President,” adding, “That won’t be fully resolved by selling off this hotel.”

Earlier this year, another former Trump property, the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, was demolished, just weeks after President Joe Biden took office.

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