An Urgent Reckoning for the Trump Brand

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In the span of four days, President Trump’s family business has lost its online store, the buzz from Mr. Trump’s promotional tweets about its luxury resorts and bragging rights as host to one of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments.The mob attack on Congress last week by Mr. Trump’s supporters has spurred a reckoning for the Trump Organization by businesses and institutions, at a scale far greater than his previous polarizing actions.And the Trump brand, premised on gold-plated luxury and a super-affluent clientele, may not fully recover from the fallout of his supporters violently storming and vandalizing the U.S. Capitol, hospitality analysts say and some people close to the business acknowledge. Other companies linked with the Trumps, including Deutsche Bank, the president’s largest lender, and Signature Bank, are also seeking distance from him and his business.The backlash is part of a broader shunning of Mr. Trump and his allies unfolding in the wake of the deadly assault on the Capitol. Schools stripped the president of honorary degrees, some prominent Republicans threatened to leave the party and the New York State Bar Association announced it had begun investigating Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, which could lead to his removal from the group.ImageTrump supporters swarmed the building after a rally where the president spoke.Credit...Jason Andrew for The New York TimesAs House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment on Monday, more than a dozen big businesses vowed to withhold certain political donations. Coca-Cola said it would pause donations from its political action committee, saying in a statement that “these events will long be remembered and will factor into our future contribution decisions.” Marriott, the giant hotel chain, said it would pause donations from its political action committee “to those who voted against certification of the election,” a reference to the congressional Republicans who joined Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud. Morgan Stanley and AT&T said they, too, would suspend contributions to those lawmakers.The Trump Organization had already been facing considerable financial challenges. Many of its golf and resort properties had been losing money, and the pandemic had forced it to close some restaurants and bars and drastically reduce hotel occupancy, including at its hotel a few blocks from the White House. And with more than $300 million in debt coming due in the next few years that the president has personally guaranteed, there had been some urgency for the company to line up new deals.While such an array of challenges would spell doom for just about any hospitality brand, executives of the Trump Organization said they planned on cashing in on Mr. Trump’s global fame with overseas branding deals.“There has never been a political figure with more support or energy behind them than my father,” Eric Trump, the president’s son, who helps run the family business, said in a
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