Trump Hotels, owned by US President Donald Trump, is planning to take over the 26 metropolitan areas of the United States – having been in five already, according to CEO of Trump Hotels, Eric Danziger, NPR reports.
Not only Trump Hotels will be expanding across the US, Scion hotels also owned by the new US president will also be taking major leaps across states’ lines nationally, and this is essentially to allow “both brands and any others we create [to] have a domestic emphasis for the next four or eight years,” Danziger said at the America Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
But to prove that he is not interested in running any new deals while still the president of the United States, Donald Trump has revealed he is handing over the daily running of his vast business empire to his two sons – and this move is to settle ethical concerns that Trump might use his position as president to benefit his business conglomerates.
Although he will remain in full control of his businesses, handing over daily control to his sons while remaining the American president does not mean his great business revenues and wealth will leave the Trump family; and this means the president is toying with ethical issues when it comes to using his position to harness business for his investments.
“This demonstrates how inadequate and frankly laughable Trump’s plan for conflicts of interest is so far,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor and government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis. “Trump plans to exploit the power and prestige of the presidency for his own financial benefit.”
And as if to buttress this point, Mar-a-Lago, a private club owned by Trump and based out of Palm Beach in Florida has increased the cost of club membership to what it used to be since Donald Trump became president last weekend. It cost $100,000 to join the Mar-a-Lago club before, but it is now doubled to $200,000 and managing director Bernd Lembcke said this is as a result of “a sudden surge in requests” for memberships.
Donald Trump owns a number of luxury properties across the country including 5-star and lower-priced hotels, and even though the president has revealed he won’t be running any foreign deals while in office, his business executives have made it plain that they are primed to explore “significant growth opportunity in the United States.”