WASHINGTON — Less than two weeks before Election Day, Donald Trump swooped into the nation’s capital. But he was not there to campaign or raise money. Instead, the real estate mogul presided over a ribbon-cutting for his new luxury hotel blocks from the White House.

For an hour, Trump shed his signature Make America Great Again baseball cap and ceased waging war on the news media. As protesters chanted outside of Trump International Hotel, the candidate, flanked by his wife and children, wielded a giant pair of golden scissors in the grand lobby and sliced through a red ribbon that two staffers unfurled on stage.


The unusual detour, on the way to a pair of afternoon rallies in North Carolina, was panned by concerned Republicans as an unnecessary distraction during the home stretch of his campaign, when Trump should instead be focused on reviving his poll numbers in key swing states.

“A candidate’s time is the single most valuable asset in a campaign. Time not persuading voters is time ceded to your opponent,” said Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist and former top adviser to Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign. “Precisely the same moment he was cutting the ribbon in Washington, D.C., where there are no voters for him, Hillary Clinton was in Florida giving a speech.”

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