Former President Donald Trump spent years selling his name to real estate projects he didn't build. But in Las Vegas, he has sizable ownership and income from a gold-glass tower he developed and put his name atop.
The former president and current candidate for the White House still has ownership in more than 260 units in the 64-story Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, and he earns tens of millions of dollars of income from the property, according to Clark County property records and federal financial disclosures.
Trump partnered on the 1,282-room, non-gaming project with Las Vegas casino owner and friend Phil Ruffin. Property records show that the developers have closed more than $400 million in unit sales since the luxury high-rise opened in 2008. Trump and Ruffin each own half of a joint venture that built the property and owns the hotel and all unsold condo units, according to a court filing in 2022.
Donald Trump, and his project partner Phil Ruffin, awarded a $370M contract to Perini Building Co on Oct 6, 2005 for the construction of Trump International Hotel and Condominiums in Las Vegas, NV. https://t.co/hkdriP3lkx
A second tower announced in 2007 has not come to fruition. pic.twitter.com/DexP7ZSRUJ— HISTORY:nevada (@HistoryNevada) October 7, 2021
The cash flow he receives from America's casino capital could prove helpful as he faces a mountain of court judgments and legal bills from his criminal and civil cases around the country. Trump has spent more than $100 million on lawyers and other legal-related costs since leaving office in 2021, using donations to pay the invoices, The New York Times reported in March. In a 2023 financial disclosure, Trump reported about $33.4 million of income from the off-Strip property, up from about $28.6 million he reported in 2019, according to records from the US Office of Government Ethics.
Trump and Ruffin held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for their glitzy high-rise in spring 2008, not long before the economy nosedived. It's also seen Trump supporters and protesters make their presence known outside. In 2012, Trump announced the sale of about 300 condos there to hotel giant Hilton in a deal that brought timeshares to the mix. Hilton later spun off its timeshare division, Hilton Grand Vacations, which boasts 205 units in Trump International.
More recently, The Trump Organization's financial handling of the property was part of a civil fraud case against the former president that led to a New York judge ordering Trump and other defendants to pay more than $450 million total. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, his company, and senior management in September 2022, alleging they had engaged in years of fraud to obtain more favorable lending and insurance terms and tax benefits. The 200-plus-page complaint included a section on the Las Vegas property.
According to James' office, Trump repeatedly submitted lower property valuations to Nevada tax authorities and higher valuations on financial statements. In 2015, The Trump Organization submitted a $24.95 million valuation to dispute taxes in Nevada. That same year, according to James' office, Trump's financial statement valued the property at about $107.7 million, a figure the company reached "using fraudulent methods."
Reprinted with permission from The Las Vegas Review-Journal.
