Richard Spencer stayed at Trump's D.C. hotel while he planned the Charlottesville rally
Richard Spencer, a noted white nationalist and supporter of President Donald Trump, is one of many frequent guests at the new Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C., according to a New York Times report published Friday.
Spencer was spotted at the hotel in early August, the Times reported, along with Evan McClaren, who works at Spencer's white nationalist think tank, the National Policy Institute.
McClaren declined to answer Times' reporter Katie Rogers' request for comment at the time about his visit to the hotel because he said he was "too busy planning a rally" in Charlottesville, Virginia. That rally, where white nationalists clashed with counter-protesters, left one dead at the hands of an apparent white supremacist.
McClaren tweeted of his time at the hotel, "place to be," after observing Trump advisor Stephen Miller meeting with Nigel Farage, a founder of the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party, at the hotel.
Trump's hotel - located a convenient 5 blocks from The White House - has become something of a congregating point for Trump supporters in Washington.
Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director who lasted just 10 days in the position, dined on salmon with Katrina Pierson, a former Trump campaign spokeswoman at BLT Prime, the steakhouse overlooking the hotel's lobby, on the night he was fired.
The President himself prefers the steak well-done with ketchup on the side, reports The Times.
Republican congressmen, Trump's family members, and assorted White House officials, along with gawking supporters, are frequently seen circulating the lobby and running up thousand-dollar tabs at the hotel's restaurants.
"It's the same old cesspool," Richard Painter, the former ethics counsel in George W. Bush's administration told The Times. "It's just that now the president is getting a cut of the revenue."