Among the issues making the Trump presidency unique is the fact that while commander-in-chief of the United States, the president maintains large financial connections to the private world. He handed over executive control of his businesses to interests including his two adult sons, but he still maintains his financial connections to them.
That set-up makes a strange saga that has unfolded in recent days in Panama all the more noteworthy. Up until Monday, the Trump Organization maintained a presence in a Panama City hotel managed by the entity for some time. Now, however, thanks to the actions of the Panamanian government, the Trump Organization has been forced to comply with the hotel’s owner’s standing orders for the president’s business to vacate the premises.
ABC News reports that “Trump Organization security officials abandoned the area on Monday” after the owners of the hotel were escorted onto the premises by police officers and a Panamanian judicial official.
Reporter David Fahrenthold stated that hotel building owner Orestes Fintiklis played a piano concert in the lobby of the hotel after the visit by the aforementioned police officers and judicial official, marking his victory over the Trump Organization in a symbolic fashion.
It’s the same way in which he marked the occasion last week on a day that police officers showed up to break up altercations between security guards employed by the Trump Organization and building staff members. A couple of weeks ago, the Trump Organization brought in an additional nearly two dozen security guards, at least some of whom barred any non-Trump employed staff from entering the room described by The Washington Post as the building’s “brain.”
It’s after a few building staff members made it into that room that the altercations ensued. During the tumult, a police commander sought to enter administrative offices and was blocked by a Trump guard who was eventually detained, although it’s unclear if they were formally arrested.
Check out video of some of that recent tumult below.
The White House has stayed seemingly quiet on the matter of the controversy over the Panama City hotel; ABC News reported Monday that a “representative of the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
Although the issue over the hotel is certainly among the most acutely virulent associated with the Trump family enterprise, there are other issues remaining with the Trump Organization’s hotels as well.
For instance, the Trump Organization maintains control over a hotel in Washington, D.C., that is poised to be used by political and social interests seeking to gain favor with the president.
Hotels aren’t, of course, the only domain in which the Trump Organization operates, with the president’s family business also maintaining control of an array of golf courses.
Trump has spent just under one-fourth of his presidency at one of these golf courses.
On top of all of this, through the set-up that has made the Panamanian hotel dispute something of national American relevance, the president seems to be personally profiting off of his presidency through such means as the Secret Service having to spend money on items like golf carts while protecting the president during his stays at these properties.
Featured Image via Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
