PERSONALITIES
MR . SONDLAND goes to Washington
— the hotelier —
GORDON SONDLAND TESTIFIED AT FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP ’ S IMPEACHMENT , BUT HOSPITALITY COULD BE HIS LASTING IMPRINT .
By DAVID EISEN , EDITOR IN CHIEF
Two minutes before phoning Gordon Sondland , I was apprehensive , struggling with how to address him . For two fraught years , he served as the U . S . Ambassador to the European Union , appointed to the position by former President Donald Trump . Would it be Ambassador ? Gordon ? I polled my parents and , as lefty D . C . folk , they provided no help , but did offer a polemic on the sins of the Republican party .
Judges are addressed as judge or your honor , former cabinet members are secretaries in public and doctors are doctor — with the assumption that practicing or retired they retain the title . The decision was mine and I played it safe .
I dialed the Seattle area code and an upbeat voice answered hello . “ Ambassador Gordon Sondland ,” I announced . The response was quick : “ Call me Gordon .” Problem solved .
That was my introduction to Gordon , who the world may know better as the man , who in November
2019 , testified as a witness at the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump . He subsequently joined a long list , from government rank and file to Apprentice contestants , to get the heave-ho from Trump , when he was fired two days after the trial , on February 7 , 2020 .
Sondland isn ’ t too sore over the spectacular end to his ambassadorship . He ’ s since written a book about his experience entitled “ The Envoy : Mastering the Art of Diplomacy with Trump and the World ,” which he has been promoting almost nonstop on LinkedIn since it was published last year and joins a litany of books detailing working within the Trump administration .
BEFORE TRUMP He doesn ’ t shy away from talking about his time with the former president and his ambassadorship to the E . U ., but he ’ s as easy talking about his day job . Ambassador Gordon Sondland , the hotelier .
Long before his dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went public or raising his right hand to testify before Congress , Sondland was kicking the tires on commercial real estate projects and creating his own hotel company . He was born and grew up just outside Seattle and his start in real estate , as he describes it , was not unique . He began as a broker , marketing all sorts of real estate classes , from industrial to retail . Then a hotel came on his radar and he ended up purchasing it out of bankruptcy after the bankruptcy trustee engaged his brokerage to sell it . His firm said that as long as they got the commission , it was fine by them , a practice Sondland said likely wouldn ’ t be above board today . Nonetheless , with the help of friends , family and fundraising , he raised enough equity to acquire the property , which was The Roosevelt Hotel in Seattle .
As Sondland tells it , those were the days that if you bought a
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