Kuwaiti Embassy to hold National Day celebration at Trump hotel for second year: report

The Kuwaiti Embassy is set to hold a National Day celebration at President Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel for the second year in a row. 

According to The Washington Post, the event is scheduled for Feb. 26 in the ballroom of the Trump International Hotel. 

The Kuwaiti Embassy held its National Day Celebration at Trump’s D.C. hotel for the first time last year, breaking from years of tradition holding the event at the Four Seasons in Georgetown. 

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Before Trump was elected in 2016, the embassy had reserved a day for its 2017 celebration at the Four Seasons, but changed the venue to Trump’s hotel after he won the election. 

“I do not know President-elect Trump. Or his people. No one has contacted me about moving the event,” Ambassador Salem al-Sabah told the Post in December 2016.

“It was solely done with the intention of providing our guests with a new venue. We have been holding the event at the Four Seasons for years. There is a new hotel in town, and we thought we would give it a try,” he said.

Al-Sabah did not return the Post’s requests for comment about the 2018 event. The Trump Organization declined to comment.

ThinkProgress first reported on Friday that the Kuwaiti Embassy’s 2018 National Day celebration would be held once again at the Trump International Hotel.

Events hosted by foreign governments at Trump’s D.C. hotel have been the subject of at least two lawsuits, alleging that such business violates the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars federal officials from accepting payments or gifts from foreign governments.

A federal judge threw out of those lawsuits in December. A judge in Maryland heard arguments in another this week.