WSJ scoop: Donald Trump’s family has reached an agreement to sell the rights to its Washington, D.C., hotel for $375 million. New owner will take down TRUMP name and rebrand the luxury property as Waldorf Astoria https://t.co/N6xEDeUUCP via @WSJ
— Craig Karmin (@CraigKarmin) November 14, 2021
(Buyer is CGI Merchant Group, located in Miami. Legit, or nah?)
but anyway, super nice how obvious it was that it was purely a deposit box for his taking bribes from all manner of corporations, foreign despots and fascist sideshow acts.
— zeddy (@Zeddary) November 14, 2021
Cermet
So, did the Rump make a net profit (just on the sale)?
Chetan Murthy
A thief gets to sell his stolen goods. Nice. What a country!
zhena gogolia
It’s a beautiful building. I’m glad it will be decontaminated.
Another Scott
Follow the money.
Washingtonian had the story (based on a WSJ tory) a month ago – it looks like it’s close now.
In other news, Why don’t we go back and kill Hitler, anyway?? (from 2011).
(via Doktor Zoom at Wonkette)
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: me, too
IIRC their original ask was $500M
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
From the Washingtonian link in #4:
It would be nice if the GSA somehow turned it into a reverse-ish auction – “Sorry, we cannot allow TFG/Ivanka to accept that bid. We’ll re-open the bidding – how about $200M?? Remember, there’s talk about tearing down the J Edgar Hoover FBI building across the street and turning that lot into a hotel, also too…”
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia:
Narrator: That’s impossible. They bought Kremlin-contaminated shit for 400 million.
Ken
For a moment I thought you meant the bidders had proposed $500M and TFG, showing his famous business acumen, had managed to negotiate it down below $400M.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Does the Soviet shitpile mobster conman even own the hotel, or did he convince some dumb schmuck to let him slap his fat, orange, fascist name on it?
Mike in NC
All Trump properties should be burned to the ground.
Ken
@Another Scott: Cute — I mean the story by Desmond Warzel. I particularly liked the guy who kept complaining that the posts weren’t appropriate to the forum. Must have predated open threads. Plus, you’ll notice that the highly-advanced citizenry of the 22nd century don’t use threaded comments.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott:
hmmmm……..
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: That is an immensely complex question that will have forensic accountants arguing for years if not centuries, especially after TFG dies and the probate courts get involved.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC:
A-fucking-men! Would be difficult for many surrounding buildings but let’s include Putin’s bitch’s shitstain here in Chicago. I’m all for demolition.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, I don’t think the family has enough kidneys and corneas to sell, even at underground organ-market prices, to pay off that debt.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mrmoshpotato: as I recall he’s personally on the hook for the Chicago building, too, which is not doing well
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah. No one wants to lease retail space in that shithole.
Gammyjill
@mrmoshpotato: I’m from Chicago, too, and I loathe and despise Trump as much as everyone else around here. But I think his building in Chicago is magnificent. Designed by British architect Adrian Smith, it is set perfectly on its odd shaped land and blends in beautifully with its neighbors.
Of course, I’ve never been inside the building because of those deplorable 5 letters plastered on the front. I won’t go in the building until those letters are taken down.
Lymie
JFC Sully is scheduled for 60 minutes.
Cermet
@mrmoshpotato: The GSA “owns” the hotel/property but the rump owns the lease. But did he sell the lease for more than be paid? That is my question. Those numbers I can’t find but experts feel the hotel is, at best, worth $275 million (and that requires a rather inflated value per room.) Considering the rump lost money (after accounting for interest) the price paid is certainly ridiculously too high. Like a $100 million too high. So certainly they expect to reap rewards once the rump is installed in the white house.
RobMassing
Laundered!
Cermet
From all I have found is rump agreed to pay $3 million a year in rent, and invest $200 million in improvements; as such, he didn’t really pay anything for the lease in the sense of buying the lease. So, apparently, he pockets well over a $150 million even if he really spent $200 million in improvements (which I am certain he never came close to that amount.) This is classic ripoff of the amerikan tax payer or typical wealthy money making – sick even on a superficial bases.
Kay
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has an excellent podcast on the Ahmaud Arbery murder case. It’s disturbing because so much of it is original souces- the audio of the aftermath where the (now) defendants were interviewed at the scene, audio of the initial hearing and some motion hearings , but there also good explanations of Georgia law as a background. It’s tough to listen to.
The real callousness – the utter lack of concern or interest in the man dying (he was still alive at this point) in the road at the scene in the immediate aftermath struck me, and not just the callousness of the shooter and the shooters accomplices, but also police. It’s appalling.
sab
@Kay: Reminds me of Tamir Rice. Little kid is shot and the two policemen lock his hysterical sister in the squad car while they debate what to do. Meanwhile a twelve year old child bleeds out.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
No doubt he’ll buy it back if he runs again. Wouldn’t want to miss out on all that bribe money if he wins…
Omnes Omnibus
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): Buy it back with what? And you can’t buy what someone won’t sell.
Tony Gerace
@Another Scott: Sadly, Hitler was just the symptom. The people of Germany were the problem. The same is true of Trump and Real Americans.
Kay
@sab:
Ugh, the female officer at the scene.
It’s REAL buddy buddy with the shooters
If you didn’t know better you would think it’s a fender bender, a minor car accident, the way they act.
CaseyL
@Tony Gerace:
We’re disaggregating into very different, separate kinds of societies. We’re going back to the 19th Century, particularly in rural areas. It’s funny in a way that telecommunications (from radio to social media) which began to knit us together, is now the tool being used to rip us apart.
Wag
@Gammyjill: Agree it is a spectacular building, and agree that the gold letters on the side ruin the aesthetics immeasurably.
sab
@Kay: And wasn’t she a fucking trainer? Tamir Rice was a terrible cop paired with a newbie. Catastrophically horrible.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Scott:
They’re all Tories over at Murdoch’s WSJ.
sab
I live in a city. I married a Catholic parochial school kid who has many cop friends.
We have a seriously severe problem with cops in America. I do not believe all of them are monsters, but I do believe it is about 40 percent horrible 60 percent okay. I have no stats to back up my guess.
But I believe the majority are trying to do their job, and a huge minority are not. That is just my take
Hoppie
@Another Scott: WSJ tory – wonderful typo! Tony Jay should approve.
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: There was talk of Florence Price the other day. Last night my dear wife and I went to a concert by the RI Philharmonic, which had as its opening piece the orchestral version of her Dances in the Canebreaks. I’ve not yet heard the original piano version, so I don’t know how much was added in the orchestration (by William Grant Still) but it was a very enjoyable piece, which, at least in its first movement, made me think of Charles Ives. Here is what the program notes said:
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks so much. As I may have mentioned in that thread, I’ve heard the Dances several times, but only in recordings/on the radio. I envy your experience hearing them in person — there must have been great energy in a live performance.
Patricia Kayden
gbear
I hope that removing the taint of Trump from this building will also sweeten the air for the building’s matchimg little sister on Rice Park in St. Paul. They’re both beautiful buildings.
Tehanu
@zhena gogolia:
My thought too.