Trump Used DC Hotel to Profit as President, Probe Finds He Fleeced Taxpayers

On Friday, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Democrats released a detailed staff report alleging that former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is the Republican nominee for 2024, exploited his Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. to personally profit from numerous illegal or dubious payments made by federal and state officials, individuals seeking jobs, and those who received presidential pardons while he was in office.

The report, named
Room Rates May Vary: How Donald Trump Violated the Constitution by Fleecing Taxpayers With Unlawful and Exorbitant Hotel Charges, was unveiled by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who also led Trump’s notable second impeachment in 2021 for inciting the January 6 Capitol riot.

“Trump has turned the presidency—and his extended campaign for it—into the ultimate quick-money-making venture.”

The publication alleges that Trump breached the Constitution’s
Domestic Emoluments Clause by treating the Secret Service as his “personal ATM” and repeatedly accepting payments that hint at potential pay-to-play corruption from individuals who sought and often received favors from the U.S. President.

“Since his initial campaign launch, which he dubbed ‘the greatest infomercial in political history,’ Donald Trump has exploited his presidential campaign and tenure as a means to amass wealth quickly,” the report claims.

“Earlier this year, Committee Democrats disclosed a report that documented nearly $8 million in payments received by Trump through only four of his enterprises from at least 20 foreign governments over parts of a two-year period, governments that often gained favors from the Trump administration,” the report states.

“This amount represents just a portion of the total unconstitutional foreign emoluments Trump collected during his presidency—a total that still requires full disclosure,” the document argues.

As reported by Common Dreams in January, documents from Trump’s former accounting firm, examined by the committee, showed that businesses owned by Trump took in payments from at least 20 foreign governments during his time in office, which included over $5.5 million from China, $615,422 from Saudi Arabia, $465,744 from Qatar, and $303,372 from Kuwait.

The new report elaborates:

This additional report is derived from just one source of data: guest logs from Trump’s Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., covering only an 11-month period from September 2017 to August 2018 (excluding July 2018). Therefore, these findings likely represent less than a quarter of the inappropriate earnings Trump amassed from this single property during his four-year term. Despite this limited view into the complex network of over 500 corporations, limited liability companies, and trusts that Trump brought into the presidency, it is sufficient to expose hundreds of unconstitutional and ethically dubious payments he received while in office from domestic sources—including a federal agency, multiple federal and state officials, and individuals who sought and often secured federal positions and presidential pardons.

“The Constitution is clear: Beyond his salary, the president should not receive any additional payments from federal or state governments,” Raskin stated. “This is an absolute prohibition against exploiting the office for personal financial gain.”

“Although the full extent of unconstitutional payments Trump received while exploiting American taxpayers is still unknown, one thing is certain: We need to establish legal safeguards now to prevent the type of corruption our Founding Fathers vehemently opposed,” Raskin added. “With the necessity to uphold the U.S. Constitution against both foreign and domestic emoluments corruption, I plan to collaborate with my Democratic peers on a legislative solution soon and hope that my Republican colleagues will join us in this effort.”

The report highlights that “Trump openly declared his belief that the Constitution’s restrictions on foreign and domestic emoluments did not apply to him. For instance, in 2019, after public backlash forced him to cancel plans to host the next year’s G7 summit at his struggling Doral resort, he publicly scorned what he referred to as the ‘phony Emoluments Clause.'”

“Far from showing remorse for capitalizing on his presidential role, Donald Trump has openly stated his intention to further exploit federal office for personal gain if re-elected—including by dismantling the federal civil service and replacing professional, nonpartisan federal employees with a group of obedient followers, sycophants, and loyalists,” the document further notes.

Raskin remarked, “Trump has made it clear that he will not divest from his businesses in a potential future presidency, but will instead seek to expand opportunities to monetize the Oval Office for his personal profit by transforming thousands of civil service positions into patronage roles—all with the potential financial benefits from eager job-seekers and the likely endorsement of his appointed Supreme Court justices.”