 WASHINGTON -- The head of President Donald Trumps flagship hotel stood on Pennsylvania Avenue with face mask on and two thumbs up. After three brutal months of empty hotel rooms and a skeleton staff, Mickael Damelincourt finally had something to celebrate: new sidewalk seating to safely welcome back Trumps MAGA-loving customers. Lets get back to work, Damelincourt tweeted on May 28. By the next day, Trump was in his underground bunker, protesters swarmed downtown Washington cursing Trumps name, and the hotels outdoor seating experiment was tabled. The whiplash at Trumps D.C. hotel is emblematic of the problems faced by his company, which was already suffering from a tarnished brand before the novel coronavirus hit. The fresh wave of political anger directed toward Trump complicates an already difficult recovery for the company. Interviews with current and former Trump Organization employees and tenants, and emails obtained by The Washington Post, show the pandemic in particular has rattled operations at the company. As thousands of Trumps hotel rooms empty, the company laid off or furloughed more than 2,800 employees and scoured for even the smallest savings. It eliminated flowers, chocolates and newspapers at its New York hotel and turned off lights in common areas in its Chicago hotel to save on electricity, according to letters that hotel management sent to investors. This was not just a step down, Eric Danziger, the chief executive of Trump Hotels, told board members of Trumps Chicago hotel on April 22, according to an account of his phone call obtained by The Post. This was a steep dive. Trumps business struggles present a potential conflict as he tries as president to manage a pandemic that has already claimed more than 110,000 American lives. The outbreak has devastated industries at the core... 