Reports: Trump selling DC hotel to investment firm for $375M

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s opulent hotel near the White House that drew lobbyists and diplomats seeking favor with the ex-president as well as criticism as a symbol of his ethics conflicts is being sold to a Miami investment group, according to published reports citing anonymous sources.

CGI Merchant Group agreed to pay the Trump Organization $375 million for the rights to the 263-room hotel and has plans to rebrand it as a Waldorf Astoria, according to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.

Neither the Trump Organization nor CGI responded to numerous requests for comment.

The deal is expected to close early next year after which the hotel will be managed by the Waldorf Astoria under a separate deal struck by CGI, according to the Journal. The Waldorf Astoria business is owned by Hilton Worldwide Holdings.

The hotel has been a big money loser for the Trump family since it won rights to convert a stately federal building called the Old Post Office from the federal government under a lease that, with extensions, can run nearly 100 years.

The Trump Organization poured $200 million to convert it into a luxury hotel, opening its doors in late 2016, shortly before Trump became president. It then proceeded to lose more than $70 million over four years, according to audited reports obtained by a House committee investigating Trump’s conflicts of interest with the business. The losses came even before the pandemic led to shutdowns, hammering the hotel industry.

Ethics experts urged Trump to sell the hotel and other business holdings before he took office, but Trump refused and the hotel soon became a magnet for the powerful and power seeking: Lobbyists for industries trying to shape policy, Republican politicians...