Trump’s Company Asked Panama’s President for Help in Hotel Dispute
Workers clean a sign after the Trump sign letters were removed, at the Trump Hotel in Panama City on March 5, 2018.
Photographer: Rodrigo Arangua/AFP via Getty Images
Panama City (AP) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's company appealed directly to Panama's president to intervene in its fight over control of a luxury hotel, even invoking a treaty between the two countries, in what ethics experts say was a blatant mingling of Trump's business and government interests.
That appeal in a letter last month from lawyers for the Trump Organization to Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela was apparently unsuccessful — an emergency arbitrator made days later declined to reinstate the Trump management team to the waterfront hotel in Panama City. But it provides hard proof of exactly the kind of conflict experts feared when Trump refused to divest from a sprawling empire that includes hotels, golf courses, licensing deals and other interests in more than 20 countries.