Donald Trump’s Friday campaign event in Washington, D.C., at the Trump International Hotel was only the latest of many examples of Trump using his campaign and ability to get attention from the media to pitch his own products and market his own properties and brands.
Friday’s event, which garnered rapt media attention because of the promise of a comment on his birther views, was ostensibly held so the real estate mogul could announce his endorsement by Medal of Honor recipients. But it wasn’t really about that, either. Trump began his remarks by instead bragging about his newly acquired hotel.
“Nice hotel,” he said. “Under budget and ahead of schedule. Isn’t that nice? No, it is a great honor this is a brand new ballroom and you only see a small piece of it. … We’re going to have the opening ceremony in October.”
He continued to promote his new property. “It may be one of the great hotels anywhere in the world,” he boasted. (Trump International Hotel is welcoming guests to the presidential inauguration if they’re willing to spend $500,000 to stay in its penthouse suite.)
All the major cable news networks exposed their viewers to Trump’s show, giving him the opportunity to basically cut a campaign commercial for his own hotel.
Trump’s marketing acumen has been on overt display on many other ostensible campaign events. For example, after winning the Michigan and Mississippi primaries in March, Trump traveled to his Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter, Florida, to hold a press conference.
Not only did Trump hold the event at a property he owns, but he used it to hawk a number of his own products — everything from Trump Steaks to Trump Water and Trump Wine. ABC News even cut a video compiling all of the self-promotion from the event. And by at least one measure, it worked. Google searches for Trump Steaks spiked to their highest record levels that month. It was later discovered that the “Trump Steaks” at the event were not even from Trump’s company.
In late June, Trump decamped from the United States altogether, spending two days in Scotland to promote his golf courses. Despite the fact that this was one day after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Trump’s speech mostly avoided politics and focused on advertising his business. As much of the U.S. and international media carried his remarks live, Trump stood in front of a lighthouse-turned-hotel-suite and marketed his Turnberry golf resort to an array of cameras and reporters.
“We’ve taken that building and made it something really special. Inside that lighthouse right now are incredible suites. … On the bottom you have dining, and golfers will stop and get something to eat,” he said. “A lot of people think this will be the great par 3 anywhere in the world.”
Although Trump has used his campaign to market his properties, foot traffic to his casinos and hotels have been taking a hit. CNBC reports that in July “Trump properties’ share of visits fell 14 percent year over year.”
Top photo: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the Trump National Golf Club Jupiter on March 8, 2016 in Jupiter, Florida.
It’s great to see the Clintonites come out of their shells or out from under their rocks and behave as someone recently remarked, ‘like political guinea worms’ and infect others, besides the Deplorables, with their hand wringing and finger pointing.
So long as Trump stops promoting his business on election day this isn’t an issue.
He is doing all those things that he acused Hilary of doing except she raised money to saved people’s lives and trump is making his self more rich! He is changing his campaign 4 x more a month for rent for the use of his hotel after he started getting campaign funding. I’m a republican that won’t be voting Trump!
J. Holmes.
The Clintons used money from other sources to fund Haiti in the years immediately after the earthquake. Over $200 million poured into their foundations, with most givers believing the cash would be a direct benefit to the victims. But, NO! The Clintons have a “Foundation,” not a charity. They kept most of the money under their control. The former prime minister of Haiti believes about 2% of the Haiti donations from the foundation was spent there, although Clinton was a major player in directing funds and projects funded by other sources, especially US taxpayers. Bill and Hillary have been objects of Haitian protest ever since and can’t show their faces there, unless in a controlled, secure venue. There were persistent Haitian protests during the DNC, but the friendly networks did not show it for obvious reasons. South Florida’s Haitians pretty much abhor the Clintons for the same reason. Pretending to save the world, the Clintons have lined their pockets and live like sultans. It is this kind of reality that fuels Trump. Clintonian greed and deceit is unparalleled in American political history, but their fans can’t bring themselves to see it. Trump is mostly funding his own campaign and has few, if any, giant fat cats who expect favors. If you owned hotels, and were paying for travel substantially out of your own pocket, where the hell would you stay?
These articles about Trump’s manipulations of the gossipy
media mavens in regard to his new hotel had one redeeming
aspect for me. I looked up the history of the old Post Office
building and learned about its staggered, sometimes on life-support
history.
What a shame that that rather impressive building has had to
withstand all of the attacks and schemes over its decades of
decays and revivals and is now becoming another shiny
bauble of capitalist decadence.
It was an honorable Post Office, but it seems now it is another absurdly
expensive theater.
That “impressive building ” was a rat infested relic. Trump took his money and risked it on a major renovation to save this historic structure. It’s to be an upscale hotel in America’s most upscale city. This is what developers do. I prefer to consider it a shiny bauble of urban renewal. Your sour attitude on capitalism is showing.
So What??? At least he is above board, making contingency planning if he loses. Where are the articles on the Bribe laundering by the Clinton Foundation?
This event, and the many other things he has done to shuffle money from the political campaign into his (or rather, his corporation’s) pockets lends (;-@) credibility to the theory that finding a new source of easy, cheap (because other people pay for it) money for those pockets was why he got in the race, and campaigned the way he did.
Hi Zaid,
I already hinted how the Intercepts blatant partisanship reflects on us, your readers, how tired I am reading that crap day in day out, how you should read Glenns comments about coverage of Brexit and Trump.
What I see here gives me confidence: if you’re at the point where you need to recycle the very content of that mediocre piece you wrote a couple of weeks ago, I believe you’re now ripe to commit some journalism. – Assuming you remember how to.
So on how many baseball caps exactly did that rascal cash in now?
Geez.
Ad hominem commentary reveals your bias buddy. Zaid’s article is grounded in facts. These may not be facts you want to hear so just move on instead of attacking the messenger buddy
Trump becoming even richer (or poorer) is really the least concern, compared to his authoritarian agenda as a presidential candidate.
Note that he’s renting it from the US gov to 250.000 per month. If elected president, then this will become a large conflict of interest.
YESSSSSSSSSSS!
Wh not? It’s the American way. Sure beats using campaigns to trick people into electing crooks like Hellary and so many other parasites.
The Donald will fit in nicely in Washington. This is exactly the behavior that goes on there with taxpayer monies.
Robert Bird of West Virginia used to funnel 50% of all the highway funding directly to his state and 25% of all highway funding directly to his district where he came from.
In interviews, Bird justified this behavior as this was creating jobs for Americans, regardless of what state they were in.
The decisions elected officials make with regards to taxpayer funds are not made on a rational basis of what is needed and where. It’s made on the basis of how much can I get for my district/State so I can stand for re-election.
We have 538 members of Congress who go to Washington to divvy up the slice of the tax pie for their states. The Donald is doing exactly the same thing they do, only he narrows the focus to his actual owned businesses.
Some of the funniest things about The Donald:
1) He claims that decades of global fossil fuel combustion has not altered the climate, yet he is protecting his golf courses from the global warming-related sea level rise:
2) He howls about undocumented immigrants in the U.S. taking American jobs, yet his golf course and hotels rely extensively on such labor to keep his costs down and his profits high:
http://www.thewrap.com/donald-trump-hotel-accused-of-using-illegal-hispanic-construction-workers/
Donald Trump is just as much of a two-faced con artist as Hillary Clinton is, that should be obvious enough. He surrounds himself with the same kind of profit-seeking opportunists (Rudy Giuliani) and neocon war pigs (James Woolsey) that Hillary Clinton does; how any sane, rational person could possibly support either of these atrocious candidates for President is an enduring mystery to me.
@photosymbiosis-As an employer what would be a way to LEGALLY not hire people his HR staff vet? Once the second job seeker is denied a job for anything related to illegal immigration Trump Inc will face a judge in court for discrimination among other complaints and would most likely lose. If they didn’t lose the cost would be outrageous. In a way they still lose. Do white males/females get that protection?
What’s the solution to the problem, smarty pants? I want to here what Jill Stein would pull out of her ass?
Trumps rhetoric about illegal immigration is much deeper than people crossing a border. Let me ask, how did the current green card system get instituted?
And Secretary Clinton keeps using public office to enrich herself to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Promotion is not a crime …bribery is.
You know, it’s really not hard to find examples of Donald Trump doing the same thing with his business operations (Atlantic City, say) that Hillary Clinton was doing with the Clinton Foundation and hubby Bill Clinton’s speaking fee deals:
http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/28/how-close-was-donald-trump-to-the-mob/
That story was featured in the excellent movie, “American Hustle”. And what was the line in that movie, “You never even got close to the big money guys. . .”?
Likewise, we find similar relationships between Donald Trump and the Saudis as we do between Hillary Clinton and the Saudis (neither being as close as the Bush crime family to that sordid dictatorship, though).
This is really a Brezhnev vs. Andropov type contest in the old Soviet Union – a lose/lose situation for the American people, gonorrhea vs. syphilis, which do you prefer? Better get your antibiotics while they’re still available.
What it looks like is, one of these two clowns will get (s)elected, and then the American public will have to spend the next four years trying to block every sordid criminal scheme they try to pull on us.
dealings? Scarfo inc, concrete contractors.
You could not build a hotel in Atlantic City unless you had “a deal” for materials to build. It would not matter if you were the ceo or a lower rung employee of a subcontractor requesting bids. Muscle in building materials is no more organised crime than muscle in politics. Donald Trump did more for Atlantic City than any other person or corpo rat.
Hellary Clinton is a do-nothing go-nowhere talkaholic political whore as are probably 99% of the elected persons in the US. Policy makers are largely thieves. It is not Donald’s *fault* that the operating environment of the US produces bad characters – it’s the hand he was dealt. Jackwods like her are the dealers and he is a doer.
Trump was too chicken shit to stiff Scarfo the way he did small business owners who he cheated by the dozens. The only thing Trump did for Atlantic City was to skim off money for himself then declare bankruptcy leaving the 100’s unemployed with zlich. And he was proud up it to boot.
He even got out toughed by a little old lady who he tried to muscle out of her house. The guy is pure slime, and a coward at that.