• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

In after Baud. Damn.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

I really should read my own blog.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Come on, man.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Republicans in disarray!

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Evening Open Thread: Waldorf Salad Astoria Cocktail Hotel, DC

Sunday Evening Open Thread: Waldorf Salad Astoria Cocktail Hotel, DC

by Anne Laurie|  November 14, 20216:46 pm| 39 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

WSJ scoop: Donald Trump’s family has reached an agreement to sell the rights to its Washington, D.C., hotel for $375 million. New owner will take down TRUMP name and rebrand the luxury property as Waldorf Astoria https://t.co/N6xEDeUUCP via @WSJ

— Craig Karmin (@CraigKarmin) November 14, 2021

(Buyer is CGI Merchant Group, located in Miami. Legit, or nah?)

but anyway, super nice how obvious it was that it was purely a deposit box for his taking bribes from all manner of corporations, foreign despots and fascist sideshow acts.

— zeddy (@Zeddary) November 14, 2021

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: «Auto Draft 52 Kelly Price – Unconditional Love Under Extraordinary Circumstances
Next Post: Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Michigan! Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Michigan!»

Reader Interactions

39Comments

  1. 1.

    Cermet

    November 14, 2021 at 6:49 pm

    So, did the Rump make a net profit (just on the sale)?

  2. 2.

    Chetan Murthy

    November 14, 2021 at 6:49 pm

    A thief gets to sell his stolen goods.  Nice.  What a country!

  3. 3.

    zhena gogolia

    November 14, 2021 at 6:54 pm

    It’s a beautiful building. I’m glad it will be decontaminated.

  4. 4.

    Another Scott

    November 14, 2021 at 6:55 pm

    Follow the money.

    Washingtonian had the story (based on a WSJ tory) a month ago – it looks like it’s close now.

    In other news, Why don’t we go back and kill Hitler, anyway?? (from 2011).

    (via Doktor Zoom at Wonkette)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  5. 5.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    November 14, 2021 at 7:00 pm

    @zhena gogolia: me, too

    IIRC their original ask was $500M

  6. 6.

    Another Scott

    November 14, 2021 at 7:08 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    From the Washingtonian link in #4:

    Acquired from GSA in 2012, the Old Post Office building was a hard-won pet project of Ivanka Trump’s, who was able to beat out competitors like Marriott and Hilton with what some say was an overgenerous bid of $3 million a year for the ground lease and and a promise to invest $200 million in the building’s renovation — a promise that forced Trump to borrow $170 million from Deutsche Bank that comes due in 2024. The 60-year lease has three 10-year options, giving the Trumps control of the property until 2103. At the time of the sale, Ivanka told GSA officials she believed her newborn daughter, Arabella Rose, would one day manage the property and handle re-leasing negotiations.

    But plans for legacy can change when your father takes the seat as the leader of the free world, not only subjecting his DC property to a slew of emoluments suits by refusing to divest, but creating a polarized clientele in a deeply Blue city. Despite Eric Trump’s claims that the family put the hotel on the market because “people [were] objecting to [them] making so much money,” the behemoth property has been a money pit, generating just roughly $40 million a year in revenue (not profit) per year even before the pandemic.

    The Journal scoop comes just four days after a Senate report revealed that the hotel had lost over $70 million during Trump’s presidency, despite taking in millions in payments from foreign governments. (The Trump Organization said the allegations were “irresponsible and unequivocally false.”) Add in the fact that the Trump company has roughly $300 million in mostly personally guaranteed loans coming due in the next few years, and the family’s original astronomical asking price of $500 million becomes a bit more understandable.

    Understandable does not equate to feasible, though, especially given that in the first attempt to offload the property investors shared Trump was unlikely to relinquish management rights (or allow the removal of the Trump name from the side of the building) for offers south of $500 mill — a valuation that would exceed that of New York’s Waldorf Astoria by 90 percent. The company claims they rejected bids north of $350 million, but CNBC reports none of the bids were close to the asking price, with many south of $250 mill.

    It would be nice if the GSA somehow turned it into a reverse-ish auction – “Sorry, we cannot allow TFG/Ivanka to accept that bid. We’ll re-open the bidding – how about $200M?? Remember, there’s talk about tearing down the J Edgar Hoover FBI building across the street and turning that lot into a hotel, also too…”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 14, 2021 at 7:09 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    It’s a beautiful building. I’m glad it will be decontaminated. 

    Narrator: That’s impossible.  They bought Kremlin-contaminated shit for 400 million.

  8. 8.

    Ken

    November 14, 2021 at 7:12 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: IIRC their original ask was $500M

    For a moment I thought you meant the bidders had proposed $500M and TFG, showing his famous business acumen, had managed to negotiate it down below $400M.

  9. 9.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 14, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    @Ken: Does the Soviet shitpile mobster conman even own the hotel, or did he convince some dumb schmuck to let him slap his fat, orange, fascist name on it?

  10. 10.

    Mike in NC

    November 14, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    All Trump properties should be burned to the ground.

  11. 11.

    Ken

    November 14, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    @Another Scott: Cute — I mean the story by Desmond Warzel. I particularly liked the guy who kept complaining that the posts weren’t appropriate to the forum. Must have predated open threads.  Plus, you’ll notice that the highly-advanced citizenry of the 22nd century don’t use threaded comments.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    November 14, 2021 at 7:19 pm

    @Another Scott:

    a promise that forced Trump to borrow $170 million from Deutsche Bank that comes due in 2024. ….

    Add in the fact that the Trump company has roughly $300 million in mostly personally guaranteed loans coming due in the next few years,

    hmmmm……..

  13. 13.

    Ken

    November 14, 2021 at 7:23 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: That is an immensely complex question that will have forensic accountants arguing for years if not centuries, especially after TFG dies and the probate courts get involved.

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 14, 2021 at 7:23 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    All Trump properties should be burned to the ground.

    A-fucking-men!  Would be difficult for many surrounding buildings but let’s include Putin’s bitch’s shitstain here in Chicago.   I’m all for demolition.

  15. 15.

    Ken

    November 14, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, I don’t think the family has enough kidneys and corneas to sell, even at underground organ-market prices, to pay off that debt.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    November 14, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: as I recall he’s personally on the hook for the Chicago building, too, which is not doing well

  17. 17.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 14, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah.  No one wants to lease retail space in that shithole.

  18. 18.

    Gammyjill

    November 14, 2021 at 7:34 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: I’m from Chicago, too, and I loathe and despise Trump as much as everyone else around here. But I think his building in Chicago is magnificent. Designed by British architect Adrian Smith, it is set perfectly on its odd shaped land and blends in beautifully with its neighbors.

    Of course, I’ve never been inside the building because of those deplorable 5 letters plastered on the front. I won’t go in the building until those letters are taken down.

  19. 19.

    Lymie

    November 14, 2021 at 7:40 pm

    JFC Sully is scheduled for 60 minutes.

  20. 20.

    Cermet

    November 14, 2021 at 7:41 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: The GSA “owns” the hotel/property but the rump owns the lease. But did he sell the lease for more than be paid? That is my question. Those numbers I can’t find but experts feel the hotel is, at best, worth $275 million (and that requires a rather inflated value per room.) Considering the rump lost money (after accounting for interest) the price paid is certainly ridiculously too high. Like a $100 million too high. So certainly they expect to reap rewards once the rump is installed in the white house.

  21. 21.

    RobMassing

    November 14, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    Laundered!

  22. 22.

    Cermet

    November 14, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    From all I have found is rump agreed to pay $3 million a year in rent, and invest $200 million in improvements; as such, he didn’t really pay anything for the lease in the sense of buying the lease. So, apparently, he pockets well over a $150 million even if he really spent $200 million in improvements (which I am certain he never came close to that amount.) This is classic ripoff of the amerikan tax payer or typical wealthy money making – sick even on a superficial bases.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    November 14, 2021 at 7:55 pm

    The Atlanta Journal Constitution has an excellent podcast on the Ahmaud Arbery murder case. It’s disturbing because so much of it is original souces- the audio of the aftermath where the (now) defendants were interviewed at the scene, audio of the initial hearing and some motion hearings , but there also good explanations of Georgia law as a background. It’s tough to listen to.
    The real callousness – the utter lack of concern or interest in the man dying (he was still alive at this point) in the road at the scene in the immediate aftermath struck me, and not just the callousness of the shooter and the shooters accomplices, but also police. It’s appalling.

  24. 24.

    sab

    November 14, 2021 at 8:17 pm

    @Kay: Reminds me of Tamir Rice. Little kid is shot and the two policemen lock his hysterical sister in the squad car while they debate what to do. Meanwhile a twelve year old child bleeds out.

  25. 25.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    November 14, 2021 at 8:22 pm

    No doubt he’ll buy it back if he runs again. Wouldn’t want to miss out on all that bribe money if he wins…

  26. 26.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 14, 2021 at 8:27 pm

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): Buy it back with what?  And you can’t buy what someone won’t sell.

  27. 27.

    Tony Gerace

    November 14, 2021 at 8:36 pm

    @Another Scott: Sadly, Hitler was just the symptom.  The people of Germany were the problem.  The same is true of Trump and Real Americans.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    November 14, 2021 at 8:45 pm

    @sab:

    Ugh, the female officer at the scene.
    It’s REAL buddy buddy with the shooters

    If you didn’t know better you would think it’s a fender bender, a minor car accident, the way they act.

  29. 29.

    CaseyL

    November 14, 2021 at 9:00 pm

    @Tony Gerace: ​
     

    We’re disaggregating into very different, separate kinds of societies. We’re going back to the 19th Century, particularly in rural areas. It’s funny in a way that telecommunications (from radio to social media) which began to knit us together, is now the tool being used to rip us apart.

  30. 30.

    Wag

    November 14, 2021 at 9:15 pm

    @Gammyjill:    Agree it is a spectacular building, and agree that the gold letters on the side ruin the aesthetics immeasurably.  

  31. 31.

    sab

    November 14, 2021 at 9:28 pm

    @Kay: And wasn’t she a fucking trainer? Tamir Rice was a terrible cop paired with a newbie. Catastrophically horrible.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    @Another Scott:

    based on a WSJ tory

    They’re all Tories over at Murdoch’s WSJ.

  33. 33.

    sab

    November 14, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    I live in a city. I married a Catholic parochial school kid who has many cop friends.

    We have a seriously severe problem with cops in America. I do not believe all of them are monsters, but I do believe it is about 40 percent horrible 60 percent okay.  I have no stats to back up my guess.

    But I believe the majority are trying to do their job, and a huge minority are not. That is just my take

  34. 34.

    Hoppie

    November 14, 2021 at 9:41 pm

    @Another Scott: WSJ tory – wonderful typo!  Tony Jay should approve.

  35. 35.

    Gin & Tonic

    November 14, 2021 at 9:42 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: There was talk of Florence Price the other day. Last night my dear wife and I went to a concert by the RI Philharmonic, which had as its opening piece the orchestral version of her Dances in the Canebreaks. I’ve not yet heard the original piano version, so I don’t know how much was added in the orchestration (by William Grant Still) but it was a very enjoyable piece, which, at least in its first movement, made me think of Charles Ives. Here is what the program notes said:

    Florence Price composed Dances in the Canebrakes in its original piano version in 1953, the year of her death (from a stroke). Thus, part of the work’s significance is that it was one of her last compositions. Subsequently, a more successful Black composer, William Grant Still, orchestrated the three movements of the little suite. The connection between Price and Still is unclear.

    The easily heard underlying rhythms of the three “dances” were derived from stage and ballroom dances from the time of Scott Joplin (c. 1900) and earlier. The first movement, titled Nimble Feet, is a “rag.” We hear this intertwined with fragments of a cheery melody.

    A “slow drag,” the dominant rhythm of the second movement, supports a dreamy melody, which is passed around various sections of the orchestra. The central musical segment is more assertive, before consolidating both moods in a final segment of music.

    The word “cane” in the last movement’s title, Silk Hat and Walking Cane, may be a play on words. The predominant rhythm here is the “cakewalk,” a ballroom dance of the late 19th century. Again in three sections, the music cleverly combines the feeling of theatrical dance with fashionable ballroom dancing.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2021 at 9:53 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Thanks so much. As I may have mentioned in that thread, I’ve heard the Dances several times, but only in recordings/on the radio. I envy your experience hearing them in person — there must have been great energy in a live performance.

  37. 37.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2021 at 9:53 pm

    Media has a lot to say about MVP Kamala Harris, when the last VP literally aided and abetted internal attacks on our democracy for 4 years.— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) November 14, 2021

  38. 38.

    gbear

    November 15, 2021 at 12:57 am

    I hope that removing the taint of Trump from this building will also sweeten the air for the building’s matchimg little sister on Rice Park in St. Paul. They’re both beautiful buildings.

  39. 39.

    Tehanu

    November 15, 2021 at 1:39 am

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     

    It’s a beautiful building. I’m glad it will be decontaminated.

    My thought too.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - way2blue - EAST 2 WEST, SAMOA—RESPITE EDITION—FEBRUARY 2025 ( third of five) 2
Image by way2blue (6/21/25)

Recent Comments

  • Eyeroller on Saturday Morning Open Thread (Jun 21, 2025 @ 1:41pm)
  • trollhattan on Saturday Morning Open Thread (Jun 21, 2025 @ 1:40pm)
  • Another Scott on Late Night Open Thread: Compare & Contrast (Jun 21, 2025 @ 1:38pm)
  • Kelly on Saturday Morning Open Thread (Jun 21, 2025 @ 1:37pm)
  • Eric S. on Saturday Morning Open Thread (Jun 21, 2025 @ 1:36pm)

Personality Crisis Podcast (Cole, DougJ, mistermix)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Cindy – No Kings – Everett, WA (near Seattle) 2

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!