by senior contributor Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
“So one way or another you’re going to be on Pennsylvania Ave?” joked an excited reporter during a tour through the construction of his new luxury hotel at 11th and Penn, just blocks from the White House—the big prize in the Billionaire’s sights. “That’s right,” replied Trump, turning his attention back to the metal framework of the giant ballroom which he assures will be the largest and most luxurious ballroom in the city by completion.
Donald Trump press conference
The size and luxury of this whole project are squarely in the center of the message grid for what Trump wants people to know about his newest hotel—not that you’d expect much less. When he arrived for the Monday press conference he was joined by a parade of characters to reinforce his whole theme—a chef, a construction worker, front desk agents and future concierges. The hospitality gang stood loyally by behind him in the dusty atrium beneath an impressive glass roof that already signaled promise for the property. “The hotel is going to be incredible,” he said. At first thought, maybe it’s a platitude from a man who doesn’t often underestimate himself, but for those who remember the dank and decaying state of The Old Post Office, the dust on site at this point signals growth in the right direction. “When it’s completed,” Trump added, “it will truly be one of the great hotels in the world.”
Mockups of the Trump DC – Courtesy of Trump Hotels
With 500 new employees, exotic marble ready to go in across the floors, and designs for ultra-luxurious rooms and suites, the Trump Hotel is sure to attract the upper crest of guests, whether they agree with Trump’s politics or not.
Ultimately, the afternoon was mostly about his politics. Nobody wanted to focus on Trump’s talking points that the hotel is going to open two years ahead of schedule this September, but rather the wandering minds were fixated on the Inaugural parade that will pass the location in January and if the Republican front-runner would end up as the locked-in GOP nominee in the general election. Cue the questions. With each thrust, Trump was ready to parry. “I think we’re going to maybe easily make that number of the 1237……..so we won’t have to worry about fighting at the convention,” he stated nonchalantly about his electoral future through the rest of the primary season.
“I think we have a very different style,” said Trump of Hillary Clinton. His business claws are out as he stands in a building that will feature his name and notes that Clinton can’t touch him when it comes to trade policy. “The money that is being drained out of our country is enormous and that’s not her thing. That’s totally my thing.” The anxious pack of reporters wanted to push-and-pull on foreign affairs after the morning announcement of international policy advisers and the upcoming address in the day at AIPAC, but Trump’s CEO hat was squarely on and this was one room where he would not be bullied, even taking the opportunity to charm the crowd by inviting a young veteran to join him at the podium who was asking about jobs and offering her a job based on “instinct.”
Trump’s instincts were not at all distracted though, never slipping at the chance to remind the crowd of his delegate count in the primary elections and which states he has won. He was undeterred by polls saying he would likely not win Utah’s upcoming election shrugging back that you can’t win them all, but boasting with confidence that there were 17 contenders challenging him in the onset of the competition and that the field has narrowed down to three.
Looking up into the steel rafters of the (under construction) palace, Trump summed up why the challenge of this race is really only win-win for him: “The worst that happens, I go back to this, which isn’t so bad.”
