美国国家公共电台 NPR Several Trump Properties Suffer Financially (But Not Ones He Visits Often)

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

While President Trump¹ is cruising towards a major win with taxes, the businesses he founded are facing challenges. Sales at some of the president's properties are suffering. Prices are down. And it appears many customers are staying away. But it's not all bad news for The Trump Organization. Hotels and golf courses Trump regularly visits are doing a roaring business. Here's NPR's Jackie Northam.

JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE²: Just as the president was heading off to Mar-a-Lago for the Thanksgiving weekend, his company, The Trump Organization, announced it was severing³ ties with one of its New York properties. The Trump SoHo Hotel had been plagued for several months by bad press and low occupancy rates. Its premier⁴ restaurant on the ground floor closed. Not far from the hotel in SoHo, another Trump building is also struggling.

TIM O'BRIEN: Recently, there's been a drop-off in the resale prices of Trump Tower condos.

NORTHAM: Thats Tim O'Brien, the executive editor of Bloomberg View and the author of "TrumpNation: The Art Of Being The Donald." He says what's interesting is that real estate, generally, is doing well in New York City. So it's unclear why the prices in Trump Tower have dropped so significantly.

O'BRIEN: Some people have attributed it to the fact that people don't want to be in the same building with the Trumps⁵ now for a variety of reasons, not necessarily even a political - it's just a pain in the neck to be in a building that the Secret Service and the New York Police Department are routinely locking down.

NORTHAM: Revenues from Trump's golf courses near Los Angeles and the Bronx have dropped. His two courses in Scotland lost close to $25 million in 2016. Many charities have pulled lucrative⁶ events from some of his hotels. The Trump Organization is also having trouble launching a new line of four-star star hotels called Scion⁷. Philip Kingston, a Democratic representative of the Dallas City Council, says plans to put a Scion in his city met a lot of opposition⁸. He recalls his first reaction to the news.

PHILIP KINGSTON: Strongly negative.

NORTHAM: Why is that?

KINGSTON: Trump is just a bad brand for Dallas. I don't want to see Dallas associated with that.

NORTHAM: Kingston says there was a protest at the proposed Scion site and an online opposition campaign. In the end, the project has not got off the ground. The Trump Organization did not respond to inquiries⁹ about this story. It's hard to draw a straight line between the business setbacks and the president's policies or comments. Trump hasn't released his tax returns, but his mandatory¹⁰ financial disclosure reports offer a snapshot into his business.

AUSTIN EVERS: Some of his businesses around the world are not doing particularly well. But the ones he frequents as president are doing better than ever.

NORTHAM: Austin Evans (ph) is with the accountability organization American Oversight¹¹. He says golf courses where Trump plays regularly at New Jersey¹² and in Virginia are doing well.

EVERS: And you see that at The Trump International Hotel, which got to raise rates in 2017 and went from predicting that it would run a loss to turning a profit. And you also see increased profits at Mar-a-Lago, which the president has rebranded as the winter White House.

NORTHAM: Trump's hotel in D.C. is a few blocks from the White House. Bloomberg's O'Brien says the president is known to dine there.

O'BRIEN: We know that lobbyists, diplomats¹³ and members of the Trump administration frequent that hotel not simply because it has comfortable rooms and good food. They are seeking access. And Trump and his family profit from the fact that he's president, and they have a hotel in town, and they're making good money off that.

NORTHAM: And those profits, O'Brien says, may make up for the ones lost at his other properties. Jackie Northam, NPR News.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 severing   

v.切断，断绝( sever的现在分词 )；断，裂

参考例句：

• The death of a second parent is like severing an umbilical cord to our past. 父母当中第二个人去世，就象斩断了把我们同过去联在一起的纽带。 来自辞典例句
• The severing theory and severing method for brittle block are studied. 研究裂纹技术应用于分离脆性块体的分离理论和分离方法。 来自互联网

4 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

5 trumps   

abbr.trumpets 喇叭；小号；喇叭形状的东西；喇叭筒v.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）( trump的过去式 )；吹号公告，吹号庆祝；吹喇叭；捏造

参考例句：

• On the day of the match the team turned up trumps. 比赛那天该队出乎意料地获得胜利。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Every time John is late getting home he trumps up some new excuse. 每次约翰晚回家都会编造个新借口。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

7 scion   

n.嫩芽，子孙

参考例句：

• A place is cut in the root stock to accept the scion.砧木上切开一个小口,来接受接穗。
• Nabokov was the scion of an aristocratic family.纳博科夫是一个贵族家庭的阔少。

8 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

9 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

11 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

12 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

13 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》