According to filings by the ex-president, the Trump Organization is facing incredible losses as Donald Trump leaves office and presumably retakes control of his eponymous company, the Washington Post reports.
The reduction in Trump’s fortunes comes as the hospitality industry is suffering, but other wounds were self-inflicted because of Trump’s support of domestic terrorists.
As the coronavirus swept across the nation, Trump Organization properties saw the bottom drop out of its finances. Two highly leveraged properties saw significant drops in revenue: The Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, which has a $190 million debt load, saw year-over-year revenues drop more than 60% while his club in Doral, also debt-ladened with $100 million outstanding, saw a 44% drop.
In total, Trump’s hotels, resorts and golf clubs lost more than $120 million in revenue from the previous year, a decline of 35%.
“He faces some very serious problems that have been building in recent years and I think are going to come to a head now that he’s left office,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant who has testified before Congress on financial matters.
Adding to Trump’s post-presidential headaches: BankUnited, a Florida bank in which Trump has $5 million in money market funds, announced on Thursday it was closing those accounts. It did not state a reason. Bank United joins Signature Bank and Professional Bank in severing ties with Trump. Deutsche Bank, announced last week that it will no longer do business with the Trump Organization.
A law firm that represented Trump, Morgan Lewis, also announced Thursday that it was ending its business relationship with Trump. When Trump took office, a Morgan Lewis partner named Sheri Dillon, said during a press conference that Trump would separate himself from his business interests–a statement that proved to be false. That press conference was widely mocked for having piles of blank paper piled up, claiming that it was Trump’s legal and financial documents.
Dillon was also the lawyer responsible for the assessment of Trump’s Seven Springs estate in New York, which has come under scrutiny by New York and federal agencies for alleged financial manipulation of the stated value. It is believed that the Attorney General of New York is looking into financial statements for possible fraud and underpayment of taxes.
“We have had a limited representation of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump in tax-related matters. For those matters not already concluded, we are transitioning as appropriate to other counsel,” Morgan Lewis spokeswoman Emily Carhart said in an email to the Post.
Another firm, Seyfarth Shaw, announced last week that it was severing ties with Trump in the wake of the domestic terrorist attack at the Capitol, a coup attempt for which Trump was impeached for incitement of insurrection. A third firm, Alston & Bird, was reported by an industry publication to have announced it would stop working for the Trump Organization.