Trump's hotels and golf resorts lost revenue as pandemic took financial toll
Washington Post
By David A. Fahrenthold
Former president Donald Trump’s hotels and golf resorts fell into sharp decline in 2020 — with some losing more than 60 percent of their normal revenue, as the coronavirus pandemic forced long-term closures and kept tourists away — according to new financial disclosure documents.
The disclosures, which Trump was required to file as his term ended, hit particularly hard at three of Trump’s biggest operations: his D.C. hotel, and his golf resorts in Doral, Fla., and Turnberry, Scotland. These three are key to Trump’s financial future, because the D.C. and Doral properties carry large debt loads, and the Turnberry property has been a sinkhole of cash for Trump.
A year of coronavirus decimated the properties: Their combined revenue fell from $148 million in 2019 to $71 million in 2020, a drop of more than half. There was one bright spot: Revenue at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, a members-only operation in Palm Beach, Fla., that is now doubling as the former president’s home, increased 12 percent. And Trumpstore.com, a website selling t-shirts, candles and bath bombs with the former president’s name, reported that its income doubled, to $1.9 million.
Now out of office, Trump has returned to a business beset by troubles, both legal and financial. His own staff have estimated that covid’s impact on the hotel business could last for four to nine years. He is facing at least two state-level investigations into his past financial practices. And, in the days since a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, some of Trump’s key allies in the business world have cut their ties with him. His company has lost three banks, two real-estate brokers, at least one law firm, and its chance to host the 2022 PGA Championship.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/21/joe-biden-live-updates/
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