The Trump Organization is reportedly looking into selling the lease rights to its Washington, D.C., hotel, which has been scrutinized over whether President Trump is profiting off of the presidency.
Eric Trump, the president’s son and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told the Wall Street Journal the company has tasked JLL, a commercial real estate firm, with marketing the Trump International Hotel, which opened in 2016 and is located down the road from the White House in the Old Post Office.
“Since we opened our doors, we have received tremendous interest in this hotel and as real estate developers, we are always willing to explore our options,” Eric Trump said in a statement.
The Trump Organization’s ownership of the hotel has prompted ethics questions and numerous lawsuits as to whether the president, who still has a financial interest in the company, is flouting the Constitution.
Eric Trump said the heightened focus on the money the hotel is bringing in added to reasons for weighing whether to find a new owner.
“People are objecting to us making so much money on the hotel, and therefore we may be willing to sell,” he said.
The Trump Organization did not immediately return a request for comment.
The property is owned by the federal government and was leased to the Trump Organization in 2013 by the General Services Administration.
Because the Trump International Hotel has hosted foreign governments, congressional Democrats, state attorneys general, and government watchdog groups have argued the president is violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause. The measure bars presidents from accepting gifts or money from foreign governments unless they receive congressional approval, and the legal challenges are currently weaving their way through three different federal courts of appeals.
After Trump won the presidency, he turned over management of the Trump Organization to his two sons but did not divest from his business. Then, in an effort to mitigate charges he was violating the emoluments clause, Trump pledged to donate all profits from foreign government clientele at his properties to the Treasury.
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