Donald Trump plans to build 2,300 luxury homes at his Doral golf resort in the Miami area, part of a flurry of recent moves to revive a family business suffering from the one-two punch of a divisive presidency and coronavirus shutdowns.
In a news release Monday, the 45th president called the plans for his sprawling Trump National Doral resort “perhaps the most exciting development in the country” but was short on details such as the size of the homes and what they may cost. The release said the plans called for the construction of retail and commercial space as well.
Though The Doral is Trump’s biggest revenue generator among his 17 golf properties though it has been a drain on the business in recent years.
In 2019, Trump announced plans to hold the global meeting of Group of Seven leaders at the resort, a potential big money maker for hosts. But he had to cancel after a bipartisan outcry over self-dealing and a possible violation of a constitutional ban on presidents receiving gifts or payments from foreign leaders.
The resort had hoped to regain ground after the PGA and other organizations pulled events there, but finances have only gotten worse since. Revenue plunged more than by $33 million over the next two years, down more than 40%, according to financial statements filed with a federal government ethics office. As of last year, the Trump company had $125 million borrowed on the property.
The Trump Organization did not reply to a request for comment.
The Trump Organization’s plans for Doral are part of a string of recent business moves after months of relative quiet.
In September, several news outlets reported that the company had struck a preliminary deal to sell the lease underlying its Washington, D.C., hotel to Miami-based CGI Merchant Group for $375 million, much more than many hotel experts had expected for the money-losing property.
In October, Trump announced a new rival to Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms that had banned him after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 last year. The business said it is will give voice to others who’ve been taken off social media sites as part of “cancel culture.” Last month, it said it had raised $1 billion from unnamed investors and plans to launch the messaging app called Truth Social early this year.
(AP)
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4 Responses
Plans to build more housing at an unprofitable resort sounds like the beginning of a “moron” joke, e.g., why did the struggling resort that is operating below capacity decide to grow capacity? Because the owner is a moron.
I’m getting a lot of mileage out of this “moron” joke.
Trump can be a senior statesman (and possible candidate for president), or he can be a real estate developer (converting a resort into a housing development by selling houses to refugees from the blue states), but he can’t do both. His partisan enemies will harass him with lawsuits (some of which have a basis, but mostly harassment exploiting the American tradition that you don’t have to pay the other party when bringing a losing lawsuit).
To akuperma: An American “tradition” is baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and fireworks on July 4th. The inability of the winning party to recover his/her legal expenses after a trial is American “law,” not a “tradition”.
More AP lies. THERE IS NO “constitutional ban on presidents receiving gifts or payments from foreign leaders”. It doesn’t exist. Presidents are not allowed to be paid by STATES on top of the salaries they get from Congress, but they are free to accept whatever gifts they like from anyone in the world, including foreign governments.
But even if this were not so, selling hotel rooms at market price is not a gift, and there is no problem with it in the first place. Businessmen are entitled to become president, just like anyone else. Businessmen are the driving spirit of America, and it would be perverse if they were to be shut out of its government.
George Washington ran his business from his presidential residence, and that is the precedent for all future presidents. Maaseh Avos Siman Labonim. He also openly accepted gifts from foreign kings, and nobody even thought to protest, which proves that there is no such prohibition.