President Donald Trump’s Miami-area golf resort appears to have raised its prices on days surrounding World Cup games in the area, in what may be the latest example of the president’s sprawling business empire benefiting from his political projects.
Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium will host seven games overall, including a quarterfinal and a third-place match, and rooms at the Trump National Doral Miami appear to be renting at higher prices surrounding many of the fixtures.
The club and resort have advertised themselves as the “ultimate championship-caliber sanctuary for football enthusiasts” ahead of the tournament.
On July 3, the day of a round of 32 match, a room starts at $460, well above the $321 and $404 per night rates from the Fridays immediately before it. On July 11, the day of the quarterfinal game in Miami, a room at the resort starts at $460 per night, the highest of any remaining Saturday in June or July.
Prices around the group stage games also appear to be around $20 to more than $90 higher than usual.
The Independent has contacted Trump Hotels and the White House for comment.
It is common practice for hospitality destinations to raise rates during the summer travel season, especially one that includes both the 4th of July, representing America’s 250th anniversary and the added influx of thousands of World Cup fans.
Across North America, hotel rooms cost about 50 percent more than usual on the nights of World Cup games, an analysis by The Athletic found.
Still, the World Cup is a reminder of the ethical complications of having a billionaire president with an active family business.
In the lead-up to the tournament, organizer FIFA appeared to court Trump aggressively — and commercially.
The global soccer governing body leased office space at Trump Tower in New York, which reportedly sat mostly empty. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has also visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago and Doral resorts.
On the diplomatic side, as Trump openly campaigned for a Nobel Prize, FIFA awarded the president the newly created FIFA Peace Prize, three weeks after the Nobel committee skipped over the Republican. The award was presented to Trump inside the Kennedy Center in Washington, which he had recently campaigned to rename after himself.
The president has intertwined sports, politics, and business in other ways, most notably by hosting a UFC fight over the weekend at the White House, which prompted a lawsuit from critics alleging a taxpayer-funded facility shouldn’t be used for an event from a corporate sports league.
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