The spirited efforts made by the Trump Organization to dispose of its Trump International Hotel in Washington DC was truncated, as the sale has been put on hold indefinitely.

This is even as the organization had already engaged Mr. Jones Lang LaSalle to look for buyers.

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According to CNBC News, the asking price for the property is about $500m but none of the bids was close, with several bids less than $250m.

In consideration of the subsisting lease terms, industry executives and advisors are of the opinion that any realistic bid to purchase the hotel would have to be around $150 million to $175 million which is even less than the Trump Org.’s $200 million investment.

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This scenario leaves the organization with the inevitable option of selling at a loss and as well default on the loans from Deutsche Bank loan and turn over the keys, or try to keep the property and return to profitability, at the end of the day.

What they are saying

According to Brian Friedman, CEO of Friedman Capital, who owns chains of hotels and properties in the DC area and as well bided for the property, “At this point, they could either just turn over the keys, or keep it and make it part of whatever media company the President decides to create. I just don’t think they’re going to get the price they expected.”

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According to industry executives, “Faced with a $100 million loan from Deutsche Bank on the property and continued losses, the Trump Organization may end up either having to subsidize the business for years to come, or default on the loan and hand back the property.”

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In response to the insinuations by the industry executives, the Spokesman for the organization said, “There are absolutely no plans to default on the loan, nor have we ever missed a payment. As for the stalled sales effort, we have had offers north of $350M, which would have been the most expensive price ever paid for a hotel in Washington D.C. and we have rejected those offers in full. Trump International Hotel, Washington D.C. is one of the finest hotels in the country as rated by Conde Nast and so many others.”

According to President Trump, he admitted to have overpaid for the property and said, “I mean, we are paying too much for the Old post office. But we will make that so amazing that at some point in the future it’ll be very nice.”

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What you should know

• The Trump International Hotel is the flagship company of Donald Trump’s diversified business empire and was officially opened for business in October, 2016.
• In 2019, the hotel achieved a total sum of $40.5m in revenue.
• The Trump Organization is expected to pay $3 million annually over 60 years lease period and the sum of $200m was invested to renovate the property, out of which $100m was a loan from Deutsche Bank.
• Importantly, potential buyers/bidders are averse and finding it difficult to agreeing to keeping the Trump name on the hotel which is one of the conditions of the offer.

The United States President, Donald Trump, appears to have recanted his earlier statement through a tweet post where he somewhat acknowledged that the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, won the presidential election, but said it was rigged.

While disclosing in his new tweet post that Joe Biden only won in the eyes of fake news media, Donald Trump said that he was not going to concede and called the election rigged.

In the earlier tweet post which was flagged by Twitter for making false claims, Trump said, ‘’He won because the election was rigged, no vote watchers or observers allowed, vote tabulated by a radical left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation and bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot), the fake and silent media, and more.’’

However, in a later tweet post, the US President showed no sign of conceding to the Democratic candidate where he claimed not to have lost the election and once again made some unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and rigging.

In the tweet post which was also flagged by Twitter, Donald Trump said, ‘’He only won in the eyes of the Fake News Media. I concede nothing. We have a long way to go. This was a rigged election.’’

He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020

The US President has refused to concede defeat of the November 3 election to the Democratic candidate despite the clear projections of the results of the media which gave victory to Joe Biden.

Donald Trump had instituted several lawsuits in about 5 key states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona, with an uphill task to upturn the results which give Joe Biden a clear lead.

He has earlier suggested that the former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, is going to lead the legal effort of his campaign organization, together with other team members, to defend their rights to free and fair elections.

The United States President, Donald Trump, has suggested for the first time since the outcome of the US presidential election was announced that he might not have secured another term, but he is still adamant about conceding the race to the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden.

President Trump gave this indication during a rare address to the press at the White House Rose Garden on Friday, November 13, 2020, about the coronavirus vaccines after the presidential election.

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Trump, who has always been critical of Democrat’s suggestions on the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, insisted that his administration would not embark on any lockdown of the country again.

The US President said, “This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully … whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, I guess time will tell, but I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown.”

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The press briefing at the White House by President Trump was his first public comment since November 5, when he alleged rigging and voter fraud. He has been out of the public space since various news media had predicted that the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, would be the winner of the election despite his unsubstantiated claims.

Trump has instituted various lawsuits to challenge his election defeat by Joe Biden as top Republicans in the US Congress refused to recognize the Democratic candidate as President-elect.

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The Trump campaign has filed more than a dozen lawsuits across the 5 key battle states namely Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, and Arizona, since the election day in an attempt to reverse the outcome.

That interaction will not be allowed to take place until the administrator of the General Services Administration, Emily Murphy, makes an ascertainment that Biden is the president-elect.

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During the briefing, Trump refused to take questions from reporters, who asked why he had not conceded defeat to Joe Biden.

After Trump’s event, Vice President Mike Pence tweeted that the legal challenges over balloting would continue. But he allowed that he and Trump might not prevail. “Whatever the outcome: We Will Never Stop Fighting to Make America Great Again!” Pence wrote.

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According to a report from Bloomberg, the President suffered a series of serious setbacks on Friday in his bid to overturn Biden’s victory as media had announced that the Democratic candidate was going to win Georgia with any of favourable outcome of its legal challenges for Trump fading away in 3 other key states.

The President’s lawyers moved toward dropping an Arizona lawsuit after Biden’s lead in the state became too wide to be upturned.