Last month, President Donald Trump's son Eric accidentally revealed that he has discussed the Trump business empire with his presidential father. Now it turns out that, in addition to blurring the line between the president's office and their business affairs, the Trump family is actively using their patriarch's political fortunes to determine their future business plans.
The Trump Organization is planning to expand its hotels within the United States by specifically focusing on areas that voted for Donald Trump in the recent presidential election, according to a report by the Associated Press. Within the more than two dozen letters of intent that have currently been signed, the regions include Texas, the South, and Washington.
Because many of these hotels would cater to low-income regions, they would include the new four-star Scion hotel chain — as well as an even less luxurious line of hotels.
As Donald Trump Jr. recently told the AP: "I think it makes it naturally easier if you're going into a place that's not adversarial to you. It's a complicated procedure that changes the dynamic. There are plenty of deals that two years ago or eight years from now, 'Oh, yeah, you can do this.' Today, we have to take that much more seriously. There is an optical component that has to be taken into account."
That said, Trump Jr. also denied that his father had entered presidential politics in order to earn personal profit, arguing that "he spent $75 million of his own money to run against 17 incredibly seasoned Republican candidates to then go against Hillary Clinton. No one in their right mind would do that. That's not a good business model! I get it, it sells papers, it creates headlines. But it's ridiculous."
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