“I think it’s a big problem for him,” said Michael D’Antonio, a CNN contributor and Trump biographer. “He created toxicity for an important part of his market. I don’t know if any will return. Most brands try to avoid controversy. I feel that he forced the hands of companies that decided to shut down.”
Properties at risk
“It may be the opposite now,” said D’Antonio. “Anyone who goes to Washington on business would be crazy to stay at the Trump hotel, unless all their business is with the Republican National Committee.”
“From our point of view, for four years he violated the terms of that agreement by making a federal office holder benefit from that contract. There must be consequences for that,” said Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a watchdog group that has been a frequent critic of Trump and his business.
Bookbinder said Trump would probably lose some business at his hotels, including his Washington property, when he was no longer president. But last week’s actions only accelerated the companies’ decision not to do more business with Trump, Bookbinder said.
“I think, without a doubt, he would have endured more without last week’s events,” he said. “If he had emerged from this as the center of power for the Republican Party and the likely candidate in 2024, there would have been a lot of incentive for the RNC and others to keep hosting events in their hotels.”
Bookbinder said the violence on Capitol could also give companies that have contracts with the Trump Organization a way out of those commitments.
“It is standard that many contracts are excluded if there is illegal or immoral conduct,” he said. “My guess is that many companies will be eager to take advantage of this type of legal opening.”
Other properties with the Trump name may be at risk in the future. Many of these deals are marketing deals, in which he licenses the use of his name – and makes a lot of money from it.
But it is not clear how long the reaction against Trump from last week’s riot will last.
“Often, in recent years, it has seemed that the president has crossed the line, and yet things have quickly returned to normal,” said Bookbinder. “I suspect that will not be the case here.”
New opportunities
Trump leaves office with tens of millions of fervent fans, D’Antonio said, opening up the possibility for new ventures and new sources of revenue, even though he closed the door on other business relationships.
There was much speculation before last Wednesday that Trump would start his own media company on leaving office. Despite the negative reaction to the attack on the Capitol, that is still a possibility, said D’Antonio.
“How long would broadcasters or other people be able to resist the money?” he said.
So it’s possible that even though Trump severely damaged his brand last week, his overall business outlook is in better shape today than before he started his campaign for president in 2015, just because of the loyalty he built up with great part of the country in the past five years.
“I don’t know if the demographics of its absolute die hard base are a good fit for its top businesses,” said D’Antonio. “They can’t pay hundreds of dollars a night to stay on some of their properties or belong to their country clubs. But the whole campaign was started as a branding exercise. I think in terms of the mass market, it is better. “