WASHINGTON (AP) -- At a circular booth in the middle of the Trump International Hotel's balcony restaurant, President Donald Trump dined on his steak — well-done, with ketchup — while chatting up British Brexit politician Nigel Farage.
A few days later, major Republican donors Doug Deason and Doug Manchester, in town for the president's address to Congress, sipped coffee at the hotel with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
After Trump's speech, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin returned to his Washington residence — the hotel — and strode past the gigantic American flag in the soaring lobby. With his tiny terrier tucked under an arm, Mnuchin stepped into an elevator with reality TV star and hotel guest Dog the Bounty Hunter, who particularly enjoyed the Trump-stamped chocolates in his room.
It's just another week at the new political capital of the nation's capital.
The $200 million hotel inside the federally owned Old Post Office building has become the place to see, be seen, drink, network — even live — for the still-emerging Trump set. It's a rich environment for lobbyists and anyone hoping to rub elbows with Trump-related politicos — despite a veil of ethics questions that hangs overhead."I've never come through this lobby and not seen someone I know," says Deason, a Dallas-based fundraiser for Trump's election campaign.
For Republican Party players, it's the only place to stay.
"I can tell you this hotel will be the most successful hotel in Washington, D.C.," says Manchester, adding that he would know because he has developed the second-largest Marriott and second-largest Hyatt in the world. Manchester says Trump's hotel will attract people based on its location near the White House and Congress, the quality renovation and the management team.
Then there's also the access.
Although Trump says he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of his businesses, he retains a financial interest in them. A stay at the hotel gives someone trying to win over Trump on a policy issue or political decision a potential chit.
That's what concerns ethics lawyers who had wanted Trump to sell off his companies as previous presidents have done.
"President Trump is in effect inviting people and companies and countries to channel money to him through the hotel," said Kathleen Clark, a former ethics lawyer for the District of Columbia and a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
She said the "pay to play" danger is even greater than it would be if people wanted to donate to a campaign to influence a politician's thinking. Spending money at a Trump property "is about personally enriching Donald Trump, who happens to be the president of the United States."
The White House strongly disputes there's any ethical danger in Trump's business arrangements.
Trump can see his hotel from the White House. When a Fox News interviewer mentioned that to him recently, Trump responded, "Isn't that beautiful?" But while the interviewer pointed out that he can see the property from his desk in the Oval Office, Trump said, "I'm so focused on what I'm doing here that I don't even think about it."
Still, Trump couldn't resist the short trip over there for dinner on his only weekend night out in Washington since becoming president.
A reporter for the website Independent Journal Review was tipped off about Trump's dining plans and sat at a table near him. He noted the president's dinner fare and companions, who also included daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Trump adviser Jared Kushner.On other nights, the posh hotel is the kind of place where on a mid-February evening, you could bump into Trump television personality Katrina Pierson having cocktails with Lynne Patton, a former Trump Organization executive who's now working at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Trump campaign and inauguration hands Tom Barrack, Boris Epshteyn, Nick Ayers and Rick Gates are among the many who have stayed there in recent weeks.
Rooms start at above $500 most nights, according to the hotel's website and a receptionist. That's up hundreds of dollars from when the hotel first opened, not long before Election Day. Patricia Tang, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, declined to answer questions about how business is going.
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