Pilar Melendez,The Daily Beast•May 7, 2020
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Over 500 workers at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas have temporarily lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The resort, which is part-owned by the Trump Organization, broke the news to employees last month in a letter to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation.
“Based on the fluid and rapidly evolving nature of this situation, however, at this time we are unable to provide a specific date at which we will be able to recommence regular hotel operations and return affected employees to work,” Human Resources Director LaDawndre Stinson wrote in the letter posted to the agency’s website.
The April 3 letter added that because of the “sudden, dramatic, and unexpected nature of this unforeseen emergency” and the demands of Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s decision to shut down non-essential businesses amid the pandemic, the hotel would be “unable to provide employees with additional notice of these temporary layoffs.”
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As first reported by The Washington Post, the president’s properties in New York, D.C., Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, Vancouver, and Honolulu have all laid-off workers amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has gutted the hospitality industry.
To date, 1,500 employees at hotels owned by the Trump Organization have been laid off or furloughed.
“You can’t have many hundreds of employees standing around doing nothing,” Trump said at the White House on April 21, addressing job cuts. “There’s no customer. You’re not allowed to have a customer.”
During the same press conference—which took place two weeks after the Las Vegas employees learned they were out of a job—Trump expressed his support for Sisolak’s decision to lock down Sin City, despite its cold reception from other elected officials and the Las Vegas mayor, who called it “total insanity.”
“They closed a big hotel down in Nevada that I have in Las Vegas. It’s a very severe step he took. I’m OK with it," Trump said. “But you could call that one either way.”
Bethany Khan, the communications director for the Culinary Union in Las Vegas—which represents nearly all of the Trump employees who were laid off—told The Daily Beast on Thursday that 98 percent of their members are currently furloughed or laid off.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s most powerful labor organization, representing about 60,000 hotel-casino workers.
In addition to Las Vegas, more than 200 employees were laid off at the president’s hotel in Vancouver, and over 75 percent of his Chicago hotel was placed on leave.
“In an effort to conserve energy, most common areas...are illuminated and heated at a minimum level,” the Chicago hotel told its investors in a letter, stating that the “heartbreaking decision” to lay off two-thirds of its staff also included suspending 401(k) contributions.
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According to the Post, the combined closed properties used to generate about $650,000 every day for the Trump Organization. The family business, which is now managed by the president’s two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, racked up a property-tax bill in April of more than $1.8 million.
The group reportedly reached out to the Deutsche Bank in March to ask about delaying payments on at least some of its hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and other financial obligations.
According to The New York Times, a Florida-based company executive also emailed and called Palm Beach County officials to talk about whether they had planned to keep asking for payments on land the Trump Organization rents from the county for a 27-hole golf club.
“These days everybody is working together,” Eric Trump told the Times. “Tenants are working with landlords, landlords are working with banks. The whole world is working together as we fight through this pandemic.”
Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which sits just blocks away from the White House, is also looking for a government break on its rent payments. On April 21, the Times also reported the hotel has asked to delay its monthly rent payments of about $268,000 a month in an effort to curtail their ongoing money troubles. The hotel is housed in the Old Post Office Building, a federally-owned property.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Democrats demand details of Trump Organization requests for UK coronavirus aid
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington,The Guardian•May 7, 2020
Over 500 workers at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas have temporarily lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The resort, which is part-owned by the Trump Organization, broke the news to employees last month in a letter to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation.
“Based on the fluid and rapidly evolving nature of this situation, however, at this time we are unable to provide a specific date at which we will be able to recommence regular hotel operations and return affected employees to work,” Human Resources Director LaDawndre Stinson wrote in the letter posted to the agency’s website.
The April 3 letter added that because of the “sudden, dramatic, and unexpected nature of this unforeseen emergency” and the demands of Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s decision to shut down non-essential businesses amid the pandemic, the hotel would be “unable to provide employees with additional notice of these temporary layoffs.”
Cuomo Blasts Trump: Your Bailout Strategy Will Doom Us All
As first reported by The Washington Post, the president’s properties in New York, D.C., Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, Vancouver, and Honolulu have all laid-off workers amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has gutted the hospitality industry.
To date, 1,500 employees at hotels owned by the Trump Organization have been laid off or furloughed.
“You can’t have many hundreds of employees standing around doing nothing,” Trump said at the White House on April 21, addressing job cuts. “There’s no customer. You’re not allowed to have a customer.”
During the same press conference—which took place two weeks after the Las Vegas employees learned they were out of a job—Trump expressed his support for Sisolak’s decision to lock down Sin City, despite its cold reception from other elected officials and the Las Vegas mayor, who called it “total insanity.”
“They closed a big hotel down in Nevada that I have in Las Vegas. It’s a very severe step he took. I’m OK with it," Trump said. “But you could call that one either way.”
Bethany Khan, the communications director for the Culinary Union in Las Vegas—which represents nearly all of the Trump employees who were laid off—told The Daily Beast on Thursday that 98 percent of their members are currently furloughed or laid off.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s most powerful labor organization, representing about 60,000 hotel-casino workers.
In addition to Las Vegas, more than 200 employees were laid off at the president’s hotel in Vancouver, and over 75 percent of his Chicago hotel was placed on leave.
“In an effort to conserve energy, most common areas...are illuminated and heated at a minimum level,” the Chicago hotel told its investors in a letter, stating that the “heartbreaking decision” to lay off two-thirds of its staff also included suspending 401(k) contributions.
Trump Shakes Everyone’s Hands at Coronavirus Press Conference—Ignoring CDC Guidelines
According to the Post, the combined closed properties used to generate about $650,000 every day for the Trump Organization. The family business, which is now managed by the president’s two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, racked up a property-tax bill in April of more than $1.8 million.
The group reportedly reached out to the Deutsche Bank in March to ask about delaying payments on at least some of its hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and other financial obligations.
According to The New York Times, a Florida-based company executive also emailed and called Palm Beach County officials to talk about whether they had planned to keep asking for payments on land the Trump Organization rents from the county for a 27-hole golf club.
“These days everybody is working together,” Eric Trump told the Times. “Tenants are working with landlords, landlords are working with banks. The whole world is working together as we fight through this pandemic.”
Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which sits just blocks away from the White House, is also looking for a government break on its rent payments. On April 21, the Times also reported the hotel has asked to delay its monthly rent payments of about $268,000 a month in an effort to curtail their ongoing money troubles. The hotel is housed in the Old Post Office Building, a federally-owned property.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Democrats demand details of Trump Organization requests for UK coronavirus aid
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington,The Guardian•May 7, 2020
Photograph: Getty Images
Congressional investigators in Washington are demanding information about loans and other funds that the Trump Organization has requested from foreign governments, including Britain, in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
The demand for information follows a media report last month that said the Trump Organization was seeking UK and Irish bailout funds to cover wages of employees who had been furloughed from the company’s golf properties in Europe due to the pandemic.
In a letter to Eric Trump, the president’s son and vice president of the Trump Organization, Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chairwoman of the House oversight and reform committee, suggested the decision to seek funding in the UK was problematic and potentially a violation of the US constitution, which calls for a president to have undivided loyalty to the US.
The US Congress has already passed legislation prohibiting US taxpayer funds from being used to benefit companies in which Donald Trump holds a stake.
“Apart from the grave emoluments clause problems your actions cause in the United States, officials in the United Kingdom have raised serious concerns about using their own taxpayer funds to bail out President Trump’s companies,” Maloney wrote.
She pointed to reported remarks by Martin Ford, a councillor in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where one of Trump’s two Scottish luxury properties is located, who said he did not believe UK taxpayers ought to be helping Trump given the president’s own personal wealth. “The huge tab for this will be borne throughout the whole population through higher taxes,” Ford told Bloomberg News.
In her request, Maloney called on Eric Trump to deliver by 21 May “all documents and communications relating to the Trump Organization’s application for any loans or other funds from any domestic or foreign government entity, including the British government”. The congresswoman is also seeking all documents and communications between the Trump Organization and any US federal employees and officials that relate to the novel coronavirus.
Bloomberg News reported in April that the Trump Organization was seeking the bailout money to help pay for bartenders, bagpipers, and other employees who have been furloughed. Trump, who still retains a personal stake in the company, owns three golf resorts in the UK and Ireland.
The demand for information by the powerful chairwoman of the House oversight committee, which has the power to subpoena documents and investigate “any matter”, does not automatically mean the documents will be delivered to Congress. The Trump administration has refused previous demands for information, in defiance of congressional authority.
In a previous statement to USA Today, Eric Trump said the British government’s job retention plan, which allows companies to seek government funds to pay for most of furloughed employees’ salaries, was intended to help the company retain and support its staff.
“The job retention plan created by the UK Government has nothing to do with the Trump Organization and does not benefit the business – it is solely about protecting people and their families who would otherwise be out of work,” he said.
Congressional investigators in Washington are demanding information about loans and other funds that the Trump Organization has requested from foreign governments, including Britain, in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
The demand for information follows a media report last month that said the Trump Organization was seeking UK and Irish bailout funds to cover wages of employees who had been furloughed from the company’s golf properties in Europe due to the pandemic.
In a letter to Eric Trump, the president’s son and vice president of the Trump Organization, Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chairwoman of the House oversight and reform committee, suggested the decision to seek funding in the UK was problematic and potentially a violation of the US constitution, which calls for a president to have undivided loyalty to the US.
The US Congress has already passed legislation prohibiting US taxpayer funds from being used to benefit companies in which Donald Trump holds a stake.
“Apart from the grave emoluments clause problems your actions cause in the United States, officials in the United Kingdom have raised serious concerns about using their own taxpayer funds to bail out President Trump’s companies,” Maloney wrote.
She pointed to reported remarks by Martin Ford, a councillor in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where one of Trump’s two Scottish luxury properties is located, who said he did not believe UK taxpayers ought to be helping Trump given the president’s own personal wealth. “The huge tab for this will be borne throughout the whole population through higher taxes,” Ford told Bloomberg News.
In her request, Maloney called on Eric Trump to deliver by 21 May “all documents and communications relating to the Trump Organization’s application for any loans or other funds from any domestic or foreign government entity, including the British government”. The congresswoman is also seeking all documents and communications between the Trump Organization and any US federal employees and officials that relate to the novel coronavirus.
Bloomberg News reported in April that the Trump Organization was seeking the bailout money to help pay for bartenders, bagpipers, and other employees who have been furloughed. Trump, who still retains a personal stake in the company, owns three golf resorts in the UK and Ireland.
The demand for information by the powerful chairwoman of the House oversight committee, which has the power to subpoena documents and investigate “any matter”, does not automatically mean the documents will be delivered to Congress. The Trump administration has refused previous demands for information, in defiance of congressional authority.
In a previous statement to USA Today, Eric Trump said the British government’s job retention plan, which allows companies to seek government funds to pay for most of furloughed employees’ salaries, was intended to help the company retain and support its staff.
“The job retention plan created by the UK Government has nothing to do with the Trump Organization and does not benefit the business – it is solely about protecting people and their families who would otherwise be out of work,” he said.
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