Trump hotel reaches agreement to sell rights to D.C. hotel for $375 million

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump Organization reached an agreement to sell the rights to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. The deal reportedly came with a price tag of $375 million.

The CGI Merchant Group, which is an investment firm based in Miami, reached an agreement with the Trump Organization for a lease to the Trump hotel. That hotel is located on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

Additionally, CGI Merchant Group made a deal with Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. to rebrand and remove the Trump name from the property. After the deal is finalized, the property will be managed by Hilton’s Waldorf Astoria group. The sale is expected to go through early next year. 

The hotel, located in the Old Post Office, was opened by the Trump Organization in 2016. While it is owned by the federal government, the lease would last for nearly 100 years with extensions taken into account. Reports of the sale comes as the House Oversight and Reform Committee is investigating potential conflicts of interest in relation to Trump as well as possible emoluments issues.

The committee is also examining how the General Services Administration (GSA) managed the lease. While the agreement was made prior to Trump announcing his bid for president, the committee is still examining how Trump handled possible conflicts of interest during his time in the White House.

The president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Noah Bookbinder, said Trump should have been required to divest from the hotel before he stepped into the White House. Bookbinder said Trump “rode out four years of using it for influence peddling and constitutional violations.”

He also added, “Selling it now that he’s out of office and the grift dried up is, to say the least, too little, too late.” Trump and his organization have consistently held that no wrongdoing was committed.