US bids farewell to Trump International Hotel that offered luxury and access in Washington
- Trump International Hotel in Washington to become a Waldorf Astoria in the New Year
- Hotel was a magnet for top donors, corporate lobbyists and foreign governments
Occupying an entire city block a short walk from the White House, the Trump International Hotel is a splashy neoclassical palace steeped in more than a century of Washington lore.
The towering atrium features a huge skylight that dapples the lobby bar in winter sun as the nation’s power brokers savour US$140 glasses of wine served in Hungarian crystal, or US$10,000 tumblers of vintage Macallan scotch.
After a drink, guests with US$385 to spare can rejuvenate with a “hydrafacial” skin treatment downstairs before reclining on designer linens in one of the 263 stately, wood-panelled rooms.
“It’s a beautiful place,” one-time White House spokesman Sean Spicer gushed about the hotel, which is set to become a Waldorf Astoria in the New Year, ending six years of ownership by Donald Trump.
“It’s somewhere that he’s very proud of, and I think it’s symbolic of the kind of government that he’s going to run.”
Spicer turned out to be correct.
Trump promised to “drain the swamp” of corruption in Washington, but instead opened his very own quagmire on Pennsylvania Avenue – inviting a dizzying array of conflicts of interest.