Jennifer Lopez's ex Alex Rodriguez to buy Donald Trump's hotel

Jennifer Lopez’s ex, Alex Rodriguez, once vilified by Donald Trump as a ‘druggie’ and ‘joke’, is now a key part of an investment group seeking to buy the rights to his marquee Washington, D.C., hotel, people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.

Rodriguez’s involvement in the $375 million deal, which could close within weeks, would make the athlete-turned-entrepreneur an unlikely financial saviour for Trump, allowing him to recoup millions he invested and perhaps even emerge with a profit from his money-losing hotel.

“This is just more proof that the only thing that matters to Trump is money,” said Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio.

“If A-Rod can bail out Trump and get him out of a sticky situation and help him turn a profit, he’s going to take that deal. He’d take it from Hillary Clinton.”

While published reports late last year identified the buyer as Miami-based CGI Merchant Group, the rights to lease the 263-room property near the White House are actually being purchased by a fund led by CGI that includes Rodriguez as a general partner, two people familiar with the deal told the AP.

One of the sources identified the fund as the $650 million Hospitality Opportunity Fund that Rodriguez set up in late 2020 to buy hotels with plunging valuations due to coronavirus shutdowns and rebrand them as a collection of “socially conscious” and “eco-friendly” properties.

Rodriguez, reached through his spokesman Monday, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Trump Organization.

Word of Rodriguez’s involvement in the Trump hotel deal brings together two infamously polarizing figures and has cast a renewed spotlight on their often-tempestuous relationship.

Trump, a longtime Yankees fan, said in a 2012 radio interview that he was never a fan of Rodriguez’s - either as a player or person - citing an unspecified “bad experience” he had with A-Rod when he lived in Trump’s Park Avenue building.

Trump has also tweeted about A-Rod dozens of times, mostly in a span from 2011 to 2013 prior to Major League Baseball suspending Rodriguez for the entire 2014 season for use and possession of prohibited performance-enhancing substances.

Since Rodriguez’s playing days ended in 2016, he has focused heavily on investing, including being part of a $1.5 billion deal last year to buy the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves.

He also owns numerous office, retail and residential properties, and stakes in dozens of businesses, including online groceries, private plane sharing, a beer brand, and gym and yoga chains. - AP