Trump opens hotel with a media circus – but few Washington VIPs
WASHINGTON – The grand opening of Donald Trump’s luxury hotel in Washington on Wednesday was like no other ribbon-cutting of its kind. There was press in from as far away as Estonia. CNN’s Dana Bash was there, behind a phalanx of TV cameras that your average hotel publicist would trade her Chanel bag for.
But it lacked a certain something expected when the oversized scissors come out. There were no elected officials from city government – no D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, no Councilman Jack Evans (whose district includes the block where the hotel sits), no Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. Seems that a photo op with Trump, whose presidential run is coming to a sputtering end amid toxic remarks by the candidate, might not be everyone’s top priority.
Shout-outs by the Trump family to prominent Washington folks from the dais of the ballroom fell on deaf ears (at least those of their subjects). Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s eldest daughter and the Trump Organization’s point person for the hotel, particularly praised Norton, whom she called a “great partner,” and the also-absent Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., who had held congressional hearings on the project, which required a lease for the government-owned structure.
Instead, the VIP section was filled with some folks who worked on the redevelopment of the historic site and assorted Trump pals. There was former House speaker Newt Gingrich (accompanied by his wife, Callista), former “Apprentice” contestant Omarosa Manigault, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., all surrogates of Trump the Candidate.
“It’s just a little embarrassing to be here,” said one attendee of being at what was purportedly an event solely for the purpose of promoting the Trump business but still had the feel of one of the GOP candidate’s polarizing political rallies.
Trump, surrounded by his grown children (even Tiffany, the second-tier sibling), and wife, Melania, seemed just fine combining the two pursuits: publicizing his hotel and promoting himself. Along with boasting of the hotel’s amenities (including “the largest luxury ballroom in Washington”), he slipped into what sounded an awful lot like a stump speech.
The hotel, he said, “is a metaphor for what we can accomplish for this country, the same kind of thing.”
Trump’s surrogates were on double-duty, too. We caught up with Gingrich, who said he hadn’t yet rested his head on the hotel’s high thread-count sheets. “But I’m really looking forward to,” he said.
And Manigault had praise for Trump, the candidate (“he’s not a politician; he’s a businessman who wants to change America”), and Trump, the hotelier.
After ordering just a little fruit for breakfast the night before, she said, she was surprised by the morning’s room-service delivery: “I woke up this morning, and there was this fruit tray – this is opulence at its best.”