DC developer interested in buying Trump’s hotel

A developer based in Washington, D.C., plans to place a bid for the lease on the Trump International Hotel in the city after it was announced that the Trump Organization was considering its sale. 

Real estate investor and developer Brian Friedman told The Washington Post that he would want to partner with Hilton to make the building into a Waldorf Astoria or with the Hong Kong-based chain Rosewood.

Friedman said that the hotel was underperforming and that it was smart of the president to try to sell his stake in it. 

“I think he has to sell before he gets out of office, because it’s not going to get better — it’s going to get worse,” Friedman told the Post. 

The hotel’s 121-year-old building is owned by the federal government but leased to the Trump Organization. It is located blocks from the White House.

Democrats and watchdog groups have raised questions about whether President Trump was profiting from the hotel and other Trump-brand properties while in the White House. The D.C. hotel opened just before Election Day in 2016. 

According to the Post, the lease’s sale is subject to federal government approval.