We won’t know how fully corrupt Donald Trump’s administration will be until well into his presidency, but things are off to an alarming start. The Washington Post is reporting that foreign diplomats have already begun flocking to the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. in a surprisingly transparent attempt to curry favor with the incoming president.
The hotel—which looms just blocks away from The White House—hosted 100 foreign diplomats this week, and pitched them on the benefits of staying there during future visits to the nation’s capital. According to The Post, the diplomats were plied with Trump-branded champagne, sliders, raffle prizes, and received guided tours of the newly renovated property.
Based on quotes from some of the diplomats who chose to remain anonymous, it worked.
“Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’” one Asian diplomat told The Post. “Believe me, all the delegations will go there,” added another.
Staff of foreign diplomats have been known to take up entire floors of hotels when visiting Washington, which means Trump stands to profit immensely from this kind of unspoken arrangement. In anticipation of this, the hotel has already hired a “director of diplomatic sales,” whose job it will presumably be to pad Trump’s pockets.
Social media was quick to point out Trump’s hypocrisy, after the President-elect spent much of his time on the campaign trail blasting Hillary Clinton and her many corporate interests.
Perhaps the most worrisome aspect of this development is that there are currently no laws in place that would prevent diplomats with special interests in the U.S. of spending massive amounts of money at any one of Trump’s properties around the globe.
And with Trump still 100 days away from officially becoming the 45th President of The United States, this, it appears, is only the beginning.
