A Hotel Down the Street From the White House Made a Lot of Money This Year

President Trump’s Washington, DC, hotel wasn’t supposed to be profitable in the first four months after it opened — at least that’s what the Trump Organization projected. The family business lucked out, however, when their overlord was elected president, earnings started to look up! Like, really, really, up.

Despite predicting a $2.1 million loss in the four months after it opened, The Trump International Hotel made a $1.97 million profit according to a report from The Washington Post. In addition to a 192% increase from revenue expectations, the hotel’s room rates were quite a bit higher than management had anticipated.

Citing a report from the General Services Administration, The Post reported that the luxury hotel charged guests an average of $652.98 a night, which is a 57% increase from projections. The rate is significantly higher than neighboring hotels like the Four Seasons and Willard — making the Trump International Hotel one of the costliest in DC.

The only divisions of the hotel that didn’t churn a profit were retail, parking, and the Spa by Ivanka Trump. Not that it matters to the president’s daughter: despite publicly resigning from the Trump Organization after taking a job in the White House, Ivanka held onto her stake in the DC hotel. The White House advisor — who would rather stay out of politics, okay — reported $2.4 million in income from the business.

Even though the hotel is rarely occupied, as in an average of 42% of rooms are unoccupied, its still managed to post an enormous profit. Hm, how might the Trump International Hotel have pulled that one off? I wonder.

From The Post:

The hotel’s management has sought to capi­tal­ize on the president’s popularity in the GOP by marketing meeting space and rooms to Republicans and conservatives.

“We are very proud of the success of the project,” the president’s son Eric Trump, who took over the company with his brother Don Jr., said in an email.

A very “successful” endeavor, indeed. One that could potentially violate the Constitutions’s emoluments clause, a rule that bars the president from making money from foreign governments. The Trump Organization has said it will avoid violating the emoluments clause by donating profits it receives from foreign governments to the U.S. treasury.

The Trump International Hotel might turn out to be its namesake’s most lucrative in quite a while, it seems.