Donald Trump could possibly have some very serious problems on this hand.
If not legal issues, then definitely issues that could prevent him from running for office again.
Documentation obtained by the House Oversight and Reform panel show that Trump’s DC hotel lost more than $70 million during his presidency, but the problems are not just that Trump lost a boatload of cash.
Falsified Disclosures
Trump may have handed Democrats the bombshell they needed to block him from running from office again.
While Trump was in office, he publicly claimed that the DC hotel was very profitable, but that was not the case.
The problem is that Trump has also allegedly falsified financial disclosures stating that the hotel was turning huge profits when it was bleeding money.
During his presidency, the hotel lost an estimated $71 million.
Democrats are also claiming that Deutsche Bank gave Trump favorable treatment, delaying payment on the principal for a $170 million loan, but that can more than likely be explained.
In fact, sources familiar with the loan have already pushed back on that, stating that the characterization regarding the loan terms have been “absolutely inaccurate.”
According to The Hill, the source stated the loan arrangement “didn’t change before he was president, it didn’t change while he was president, it hasn’t changed since he was president. It’s remained the same.
“So the statement itself is false that he got preferential treatment.”
Reps. Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Connolly (D-VA) penned a letter to GSA administrator Robin Carnahan stating, “The documents provided by GSA raise new and troubling questions about former President Trump’s lease with GSA and the agency’s ability to manage the former President’s conflicts of interest during his term in office when he was effectively on both sides of the contract, as landlord and tenant.”
It continued, “Without more information about these opaque transactions, including the parties involved, the source of the funds, and the specific business purpose for each transaction, there is no way for anyone examining these records to understand why millions of dollars flowed between the Trump Hotel and President Trump’s other businesses.”
There will also be a focus on the $3.7 million the hotel earned from foreign governmental business, which is already being described as a “windfall,” but that is literally a spit in the bucket in terms of income for a hotel of this magnitude.
It is also worthy to note that due to the hotel’s location, had Trump not been president, the property would probably have seen far more traffic from government business than it already had.
The big issue here is the falsification of financial disclosure forms because Trump will have to deal with all kinds of legal repercussions on that front.
Keep in mind, Democrats are going to overstate everything to create a negative news cycle for Trump, so we have to keep that in mind and just see how all this plays out.
Source: The Hill
