The first U.S. president to come from the commercial real estate world, Donald Trump has retained ownership of his vast real estate portfolio while occupying the Oval Office.
Born in Queens in 1946, Trump began his career developing apartments around New York City’s boroughs with his father, Fred Trump. He took over the company in 1971 and moved his focus to several major projects in Manhattan. Trump continued developing properties and hosting a reality television show until launching his political career in 2015.
While he handed the operation of his company to his sons upon taking office, Trump has been no stranger at his hotels and golf clubs. The president spent 48 of his first 163 days in office at a Trump-branded property. His hotel portfolio includes 14 properties from Washington, D.C., to Las Vegas, and he owns 17 golf clubs from Northern Virginia to Palm Beach, Florida, to Bedminster, New Jersey, to properties overseas in Scotland, Ireland and Dubai.
The company has also opened Trump-branded office and multifamily properties in many major cities. His international footprint includes properties in Istanbul, Panama City, Seoul, Mumbai, Toronto, Vancouver, the Philippines and Uruguay. Many Trump-branded properties are a result of licensing deals, rather than Trump developing and owning the buildings himself.
A financial disclosure report released mid-June showed Trump and his businesses had reported $597M in revenue for the prior year, down roughly 3% from the year before. Revenues were up at Mar-A-Lago, bringing in $37.3M compared to $29.8M the year before. The D.C. hotel Trump opened in the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue, just four blocks from the White House, has brought in $20M in revenue since its September 2016 opening.
Trump Hotels is launching a new small-town brand, American Idea, beginning in Mississippi and planning to spread through Middle America markets where the president has broad support. — Jon Banister
