Local News

Coronavirus Leads To Furlough Of 2,000 Workers At Trump Properties

April 18, 2020 / 2:50 PM EDT / CBS Miami

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami/CNN) - Nearly 2,000 employees who work on Trump properties across several states, including the President's Mar-a-Lago resort, have been furloughed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Public documents show that Trump properties in Illinois, Nevada, New York, Virginia and Washington, DC, have collectively furloughed more than 1,200 additional employees. And at least 713 more workers were furloughed at two Trump properties in Florida, the Trump Organization said in documents filed with the Florida Department of Labor and local officials.

Trump National Doral Miami has furloughed 560 employees, while Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach has furloughed 153 employees, according to the organization. The furloughs at those properties are of non-essential employees, including 31 cooks, 155 servers, and 49 housekeepers across the two properties, the organization said.

Trump International Hotel workers were furloughed in Chicago (294 employees), Las Vegas (552 employees) and Washington (237). Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York furloughed 70 employees and Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, another 102 employees.

Real estate publication the Real Deal first reported the furloughs at Trump's Florida properties.

"We anticipate that this cessation of nonessential operations of the Club and these furloughs will be temporary. Based on the fluid and rapidly evolving nature of this situation, however, at this time we are unable to provide a specific date at which we will be able to recommence regular Club operations and return affected employees to work," the organization's head of human resources said in a letter regarding Doral.

A spokesman for the Trump Organization did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

Earlier this month, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a stay-at-home order, which closed all nonessential businesses in the Florida, and state leaders have put similar orders in place in Illinois, Nevada, New York, Virginia and Washington, DC.

Coronavirus has devastated the hospitality sector, with mass furloughs and layoffs across the industry. Some hotels have closed temporarily as others fight to stay open with a skeleton staff.

Trump and his family have been barred from seeking relief from a Treasury Department $500 billion lending program included in the $2 trillion stimulus package he signed last month.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the coronavirus is costing Trump Organization properties over a million dollars in lost revenue daily, and The Washington Post reported the company has laid off or furloughed nearly 1,500 employees at its hotels in the United States and Canada.

The President has been eager for Americans to return to work, despite a lag in testing capacity for coronavirus. He assembled a bipartisan task force aimed at reopening the economy and this week he laid out a three-phase approach for states to ease restrictions.