Imagine, if you will, a world in which the globe’s most narcissistic developer’s name has been so tarnished by its bearer’s exploits that his business partners decide to launch a line of luxury hotels…
… without his name on them.
As reported by Henry Grabar in Slate yesterday, the Self Organization is planning a line of hotels to be called “Scion,” which will offer “not a place to stay, but a place to be” (gagging here), with all the hip, now, mod, gear, trendy things that the kids look for in contemporary lodging, and without a certain 5-letter golden title that has emblazoned all of Himself’s business ventures from gristly steaks to undrinkable vodka.
The golden Trump Scrabble tiles aren’t coming off the facades just yet. Scion hotels will mostly be conversions from the purchases of existing facilities. They are supposed to be hip, and in competition with hotels like the W. In that sense, the Trump name might have been a bad fit even before the boss revealed his contempt for Mexicans, Muslims, veterans, the disabled, and women. Scion is supposed to cater to the “ ‘we’ economy,” according to Kathleen Flores, an executive vice president for Trump Hotels. “It’s not a place to stay, but a place to be,” she told Hotel News Now this summer. Scion is about “connections,” said Trump Hotels CEO Eric Danziger. The concept is modeled on SoHo House.
You don’t need to go furniture shopping with Donald Trump to see why he might not be the most appealing ambassador for that crowd. (In swing states, only one in five Americans under 35 supports Trump for president, according to a September poll.)
This is the first public sign that his kids are beginning to realize just how much a threat their father’s brief and bizarre political career has become to their inheritances.
Sadly, I fear that, like the GOP establishment that thought putting its fingers in its collective ears and saying, “La la la I can’t hear you” would protect their interests through this difficult time, they are coming way late and way lame to the game.
Sorry, little Selfies, but pulling down the gilded letters and substituting the name of a popular car isn’t going to be enough to save your theoretical billions.
If you really want to make sure you won’t come to personally understand why preserving our nation’s safety net is a good thing, I suggest you contact some good lawyers (not your dad’s) and look into the details of declaring your progenitor non compos mentis and get whatever assets he has left after all this under your own fingers.
In the meantime, enjoy your stay at Scion.