The Trump International Hotel, housed in a 19th century neo-Romanesque building, is closing its doors.

Built in the 1890s, the 12-story building, a former post office, is the third tallest in the U.S. capital.

Condemned several times to demolition, the building was narrowly saved in 2011 when Donald Trump pledged to invest $ 200 million in its renovation.

The hotel opened in the fall of 2016, a few months before Donald Trump entered the White House.

A huge skylight illuminates the bar where you sip glasses of 140 dollars wine served in Hungarian crystal, before a night in the Franklin Suite, 12,000 dollars, breakfast included.

“It's a place he's very proud of,” Donald Trump's spokesperson Sean Spicer said at his first White House press conference in January 2017. “I think he's representative of the type. administration that he will lead ".

"Conflict of interest"

By assuming the presidency, Donald Trump entrusted control of his real estate empire to his two eldest sons, promising not to interfere in the activity of his properties.

In fact, he promoted it at every opportunity and the Trump International Hotel has retained its influence.

During his presidency, 150 officials from 77 foreign countries visited the properties of the Republican billionaire, according to the anti-corruption NGO CREW.

American political groups have spent a total of $ 3 million to organize some 40 events in the hotel on Pennsylvania avenue.

And according to the NGO, influential groups like the American Petroleum Institute have repeatedly organized events in the hotel after meetings at the White House.

And many have obtained beneficial political fallout.

Elected on the promise to "clean up the backwater" of Washington, "Donald Trump should never have been allowed to keep his hotel", denounces the president of CREW, Noah Bookbinder.

Asked about mixing his presidential prerogatives with the promotion of his sprawling real estate empire, Donald Trump defended himself in 2016: "The law is completely on my side, presidents cannot have a conflict of interest".

Guests at the Trump International Hotel watch a debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, October 19, 2016 ZACH GIBSON AFP / Archives

$ 70 million in losses

The Trump International Hotel's survival, however, was short-lived.

A parliamentary inquiry found that the hotel had lost more than $ 70 million under the Trump presidency, believing it had "grossly exaggerated" its profits.

Donald Trump and his wife Melania at the opening ceremony of the Trump International Hotel in Washington in 2016 CHIP SOMODEVILLA GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP / Archives

The Trump Organization called the report "intentionally misleading, irresponsible and unequivocally false" and called it "political harassment."

The group did not follow up on AFP's requests.

But several American media have reported a very low occupancy rate, in particular because of the pandemic.

The Trump Organization then assigned the lease of the building for an announced amount of $ 375 million to an investment fund, which plans to reopen the hotel in the first months of 2022 under the name Waldorf Astoria.

This did not appease the critics.

"Sell him now, when he is no longer in power, that the shenanigans have subsided", points out the president of CREW, "it is too little, too late".

© 2021 AFP