Trump’s new hotel in the nation’s capital, not far from the White House, has been under the spotlight since he opened it late last year.
During a mid-week news conference, Trump said that he will donate any profits his hotels earn on stays from foreign government officials to the U.S. Nonetheless, his plan still has some experts scratching their heads. Trump plans to donate money spent by foreign governments at his hotels to the U.S. On Wednesday, Trump painted a clearer picture of what will happen when he takes office. Dillon also said that the Trump Organization will appoint an ethics adviser to its management team who must approve deals that could raise concerns about conflicts. Under the plan intended to help allay concerns about conflicts of interest, Trump will hand managerial control of his company to his two adult sons and a longtime business executive. Trump has stakes in 500 companies in about 20 countries. The widely varying definitions means some hotels can show big profits, while others show very little, even if they are doing equally well.Also, some ethics experts had worried that a complete divestment would take too much time and prove too complicated given that much of Trump’s wealth is tied up in real estate that can’t be sold quickly and that his business interests are so sprawling. Hotel management professor Bjorn Hanson said there is no commonly accepted definition of profits in the industry. Public Citizen sent a letter to the Trump Organization last month because their methodology would seemingly not provide a donation from any unprofitable properties receiving foreign government revenue. It said it would send the Treasury only profits obviously tied to foreign governments, and not ask guests questions about the source of their money because that would "impede upon personal privacy and diminish the guest experience of our brand." In an eight-page pamphlet provided by the Trump Organization to the House Oversight Committee in May, the company provided more details. It also cited an accounting standard called the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, but that standard doesn't provide a definition for profit, Hanson said. In its statement Friday, it said made its calculation according to "our policy," but didn't say what that policy was. Trump's attorneys have challenged the premise that a hotel room is an "emolument" but announced the pledge to "do more than what the Constitution requires" by donating foreign profits at the news conference.Īs a privately held company, The Trump Organization isn't required to disclose its definition of profit.
The suits allege that foreign governments' use of Trump's hotels and other properties violates the emoluments clause. Several lawsuits have challenged Trump's ties to his business ventures and his refusal to divest from them. "They could have paid 10 times more or 100 times more, and we would equally have no way to judge whether the amount paid reflects their actual profits or how they calculated it, and which governments have been patronizing Trump properties," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.Įthics experts have criticized the pledge Trump made at a news conference held days before his inauguration because it didn't include all his properties, such as his resorts, and left it up to Trump to define "profit." The pledge was supposedly made to ameliorate the worry that Trump was violating the Constitution's emoluments clause, which bans the president's acceptance of foreign gifts and money without Congress' permission. Ethics experts have challenged the methodology by which the Trump Organization determines its profits as incomplete and misleading. The amount spent at the Trump-owned commercial properties became an issue of debate on social media as media organizations and watchdogs filed public records requests with the U.S. A representative for the Treasury declined to comment. Treasury has confirmed receipt of the check, it also did not provide any details. The Daily Mail first reported the figure on Friday. The company said last week that it had made a donation, but refused to disclose the amount. 22 voluntary donation fulfills the company's pledge to donate profits from foreign government patronage while Donald Trump is president. Treasury last month, an amount that it said reflects its profits from foreign-government bookings at its hotels last year. George Sorial, the executive vice president and chief compliance counsel, said the Feb. President Trump’s company said it donated 105,465 to the U.S. Treasury, an executive said in a statement Friday. The Trump Organization has donated $151,470 in foreign government profits at its hotels and similar businesses last year to the U.S.
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