Consumer confidence is up across the board, and the Trump Administration insists that the economy is doing well, but there’s one brand that’s not following the market: the Trump brand.
Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch reports that the president’s namesake hotels, golf courses, condominium developments, and wineries are having a tough time making ends meet. The brand, they say, has “lost its mojo.”
“From golf fees and licensing deals to prices for Trump condos, many metrics used to gauge his business in the first two years of his presidency are down as the divisive comments and policies so beloved by his political base have turned off a group just as dear to him — the affluent who fuel his businesses,” Marketwatch reports.
The downturn can’t be fully quantified, but it appears to extend beyond just Trump hotels. The president’s golf courses in Scotland and the United States have posted losses and the price to own a condominium in a Trump building has dropped about 14% in both New York and Chicago, even as housing prices in both cities continue to rise.
The source of the problem may be easy to pinpoint: the same political volatility that has marked Donald Trump’s presidency carries over into the corporate world. Hotel guests and golfers fear they’re making a political statement by staying at Trump properties and frequenting Trump courses.
There are other factors in play, though. Democrats have been intensely focused on Trump’s businesses, and have demanded a strong separation between the Trump White House and the Trump brand, which severely hampers the brand’s ability to do business.
“Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric have said that new limits their father has placed on his businesses, such as agreeing not to strike any new business overseas, have indeed slowed deal-making. But they said that might be the price to pay for their father being president,” Marketwatch reports.
Ivanka Trump was even forced to shut down her signature clothing and accessories brand to avoid the impression that she was dividing her attention between the country’s needs and her business’s.
Those restrictions are on top of a series of investigations, including an anticipated Congressional investigation, into whether Donald Trump has unjustly enriched himself using the office of the president in violation of the Constitution’s “Emoluments Clause.” Democrats, who are set to take over the House in just a few days, have said they intend to make an “Emoluments Clause” investigation a top priority and that they plan on subpoenaing the president’s personal tax records going back decades.
But if things have dropped off a little for the Trump family, it hasn’t shown. The Trump brand is still, the WSJ reports, pulling in more than $400 million in revenue per year, and $40 million of that is from the president’s Washington, D.C. hotel alone.