Some Hotels Are Really Stepping Up to Help During the Coronavirus Pandemic but Trump’s Aren’t Among Them

During the current coronavirus pandemic, hotels have been a great resource. Rather than let all their unused food rot, many hotels have been donating it. The giant properties in Las Vegas have donated thousands of hundreds of thousands of pounds of food to food banks and other charities. Others are giving food directly to people in need, like one hotel group that set up food trucks to offer free meals to children who relied on their school’s lunch program.

A ton of hotels–including some major luxury hotels–are also donating their now-vacant rooms to doctors, nurses, and other medical workers who need to be quarantined away from their families.

Gary Neville has closed his hotels & he will hand them over to the NHS.
Not a single member of staff will face redundancies & all will receive full pay

Outstanding
pic.twitter.com/e286fmiRlI

— Ben (@BenJolly9) March 18, 2020

In Los Angeles, there’s a major effort underway right now to get the state’s homeless population, especially in Los Angeles, into vacant hotel rooms leased by the government.

Los Angeles is requisitioning 15,000 hotel rooms to house homeless people during the #COVID19 pandemic.

Another 15,000 rooms are being opened for homeless people in the rest of California — about enough to shelter 10% of its total homeless population (est. 150,000 people). pic.twitter.com/WChTDRxFf4

— AJ+ (@ajplus) April 8, 2020

Hotel owners and staff are doing so much right now that those who aren’t really stand out.

Can the homeless see it from below? https://t.co/b4YFaS3nV6

— zellie (@zellieimani) April 9, 2020

And the person who’s doing the least, of course, is Donald Trump.

All of the Las Vegas hotels have donated food and rooms for emergency personnel in Las Vegas except for one: The Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/MmyeSR0gnR

— Stone (@stonecold2050) April 8, 2020

Trump has been talking and tweeting about the great work being done by private businesses during the pandemic. His press briefings frequently include pointless statements from corporate CEOs. A few weeks ago, Trump tweeted, “America’s Private Sector is stepping up to help us be STRONG!”

But is Trump himself “stepping up”? Nope. ProPublica says they “examined the seven hotel properties and dozen U.S. country clubs owned by the Trump Organization and could find no sign that any are taking the sorts of civic-minded steps the president has urged.”

Trump has not been offering his hotel rooms to those in need. In fact, at least some still appear to be available to book for guests looking to pay hundreds of dollars a night, even in areas like New York with mandatory stay-at-home orders. His D.C. hotel has reportedly had about 10 guests (for 263 rooms) in recent days. ProPublica also confirmed that Trump’s Vegas hotel has not been among those donating food.

I wish this was even the tiniest bit surprising.

(image: Prayitno on Flickr)

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