A Trump Hotel in Every Town and a Chicken in Every Pot
Jeff Edwards January 26, 2017
Trump Hotels CEO Eric Danziger has hinted that the company has aggressive US expansion plans in mind for the near future.
The Trump moniker has never been more of a household name than it is at this very moment in history and at least one branch of the namesake company is primed to take advantage of the free publicity, striking while the iron is hot. If indications from the company come to fruition, hotels emblazoned with the Trump logo might soon dot the skylines of every major city in the US.
“There are 26 major metropolitan areas in the U.S., and we’re in five,” Trump Hotels CEO Eric Danziger said to industry insiders at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in comments reported by Bloomberg. “I don’t see any reason that we couldn’t be in all of them eventually.”
The planned domestic expansion comes at a time when newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump is facing increasing pressure to divest himself completely from his business. Trump announced that he has relinquished control of his massive real estate, entertainment and hospitality holdings, but has so far resisted calls to sell off those assets. Instead, the mogul-turned-civil-servant says he has placed close family members in control of his vast business empire.
The liberal-leaning group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) says simply stepping away from the day-to-day running of the company is not enough. The group has filed a federal lawsuit asking the courts to prevent the current sitting U.S. President from earning money from foreign governments. The suit specifically calls into question foreign governments ultimately enriching the new head of state through his Trump International Hotel in Washington DC.
“We always encourage officials to do the right thing,” CREW Director and former federal corruption prosecutor, Noah Bookbinder said of the most recent legal action. “We did not want to get to this point. It was our hope that President Trump would take the necessary steps to avoid violating the Constitution before he took office. He did not. His constitutional violations are immediate and serious, so we were forced to take legal action.”
Danziger says the planned expansion will be two-fold, with luxury Trump International properties coming to the 26 biggest US markets and upscale Trump-branded Scion Hotels expanding to small and mid-sized markets. In a nod to avoiding potential conflicts of interests posed by the company founder’s new position as the leader of the free world, the company is shelving international expansion plans to focus on growth in the US for now.
“That’s pretty much off,” Danziger told the gathered industry insiders referring to expansion talks with China. “Both brands and any others we create will have a domestic emphasis for the next four or eight years,” he added.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
Thanks annehamnitz, that frees up a room for me to stay in so I can give him my hard-earned money instead.
Will never stay in anything labelled trump (or ivanka or anything related). Turns my stomach to think that any of my hard earned money would benefit he who cannot be named.
Aristotled, do you have the figures to back up the assertion related to booking figures at those hotels. You can't make a claim without facts and figures to back it up... Oh, wait, since the election I guess you can.
Since the election Trump hotels are booked solid. This article suggests violations which is BS. He's done more divesting than he even had to. This article is political and doesn't belong on this site. They lost, get over it. Pfftt.
The President of the United States should not be benefiting from a private company (unless it's investments in a blind trust). He should've decided between the company and the presidency. It needs to be said and repeated that this is not normal.