President-elect Donald Trump may have finished building his Washington, D.C., hotel ahead of schedule, but he reportedly still hasn't finished paying the bills. The Washington Post reported Thursday that two contractors claim they have yet to be paid for some of their work on Trump's $212 million hotel.
Joseph J. Magnolia, Inc., a family-owned plumbing company, is reportedly out $2.98 million after working on the Trump hotel for more than two years. The company's president John D. Magnolia said most of the work — which included "all the plumbing, mechanical, and HVAC work, along with site sewer, storm, and water services" — has been paid for, but the company is still waiting on its last check. Another firm, A&D Construction, claims the Trump Organization owes $79,000 for its work on the hotel's wall base and crown molding.
Both companies have filed a lien to protest the lack of payment, an occurrence that a Trump Organization spokesperson said "is not uncommon" at the "conclusion of construction." Trump, The Washington Post noted, has a history of not paying his contractors in full — and as recently as May, he told The Wall Street Journal, "I love to hold back and negotiate when people don't do good work."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Magnolia, however, has faith it's all going to work out — and he even admitted he voted for Trump in the election. "Unfortunately Mr. Trump and Ivanka and so forth, they are I guess preoccupied by other matters now," Magnolia said. "They are trying to go run the country. So we'll just see what happens."
For more on the story — including how the liens could affect Trump's lease with the federal government — head over to The Washington Post.
-
August 23 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
