Federal agency says Trump's D.C. hotel isn't in violation of government lease

The ribbon-cutting at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The General Services Administration has decided there is no conflict in President Trump's hotel lease from the government, the federal agency announced in a letter released Thursday.

The GSA signed off on the deal after Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., and lawyers changed the lease so revenue from the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., will stay with the hotel and not go to the president's personal trust company. While Trump turned over operation of the business to his adult sons, he still owns more than three-quarters of the project and his share of the revenues will be moved to a corporation set up for his ownership stake, the Los Angeles Times reports. "This doesn't make any sense to me, and it seems like GSA has leaned over backwards to accommodate the president here," Fred Wertheimer, president of the Democracy21 advocacy group, told the Times. "This is one more example of why President Trump should have divested his assets into a blind trust."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.