Trump's 'Crown Jewel' Sign Torn Down As New Owners Claim Flagship D.C. Hotel
Workers remove the signage for the Trump International Hotel on May 11, 2022, in Washington. The lease to the Washington, D.C., hotel run by Donald Trump's family company while he was president, has been sold by his family company to a Miami-based investor fund. (Photo: AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The signs at the Trump International Hotel in Washington ― once described as the “crown jewel” of Donald Trump’s real estate empire ― came down Wednesday night just hours after new owners took control over the property.
CGI Merchant Group, an investment firm that includes former MLB superstar Alex Rodriguez and former boxing champ Floyd Mayweather, struck a deal last year to buy the hotel for $375 million.
The deal closed Wednesday ― and the signs came down shortly afterward:
Live from former Trump International Hotel in DC. Sign comes down. Prep work under way pic.twitter.com/yGR2y3LZnw
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) May 12, 2022
The property lost $70 million during the Trump presidency, but The Washington Post said the sale will yield about $100 million in profit for the former president.
The new hotel will be run by Hilton as a Waldorf Astoria property that is expected to reopen by summer, CGI Merchant Group said in a news release.
While the building itself is owned by the federal government, Trump won a lease on the property in 2012, then opened it as a hotel in 2016. After he won the presidency, it became a place for those hoping to be seen and curry favor.
It’s also been the target of ethics allegations, as lobbyists and foreign interests spent big bucks at the hotel, earning Trump and his family millions.
But when Trump left town, business dried up.
“Those people no longer have any reason to meet and try to find out what’s happening on the scene because the man is gone,” Kevin Chaffee, senior editor of Washington Life, told The Guardian last year. “So it must be like a ghost town.”
Trump’s critics on social media wished the signs a not-so-fond farewell:
The Trump Hotel in DC is no more. Good riddance to a sinkhole of corruption.
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) May 12, 2022
I wonder if the sale price for Trump Hotel DC included the Jumbo Prawns sitting in the restaurant freezer. (He always had to have bigger shrimp in his shrimp cocktail than his guests, true story from annals of the world’s most fragile ego.) @GOP
— NoelCaslerComedy (@caslernoel) May 11, 2022
The Trump Hotel in Washington DC is no longer.
There should be a historical marker placed nearby as to all the crimes that were committed inside. https://t.co/jltRNzqC7f— Linda Wasson, B.S., M.F.A.🌻🇺🇦🌻 (@backroads_linda) May 12, 2022
That place needs impossible amounts of sage. https://t.co/wqhnxmJQSP
— Andy Schwartz (@AndySchwartz12) May 12, 2022
Anyone want to suggest which political ghosts will linger in the soon-to-be-former Trump International Hotel DC?
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) May 11, 2022
AMEN! Buh-Bye to the #TrumpHotel in #DC! Its signs are taken down! I will now happily walk inside! I've loved the Old Post Office Pavilion since I was a kid, but wouldn't step foot inside once Trump got his hands on it, as I wasn't about to give him a dime of my $$. https://t.co/vCEMhAaIYh
— Lisa Amore (@lamore) May 12, 2022
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.