In 2013, long before Trump decided to run for president, he signed a lease with the federal government to renovate a beautiful and historic building called the Old Post Office near the White House and convert it to a luxury hotel. The lease prohibits any elected official from participating in the profits of the venture.

Given the unambiguous language of the lease, it seemed certain that Trump would sell it to another hotel operator. After all, foreign dignitaries might book space there as a way to curry favor with the president. It would appear to invite graft.

Trump decided he would not give up the lease.

A few days ago, the General Services Administration issued a lengthy opinion concluding that Trump’s control of the hotel was not a conflict of interest. Besides which, the property was producing revenue. So what’s a conflict of interest when money’s being made?

“Government officials overseeing the Trump International Hotel’s lease with the federal government have determined the deal is in “full compliance” despite a clause in the agreement barring any “elected official of the government of the United States” from deriving “any benefit.”

“In a Thursday letter to Eric Trump, the president’s son now overseeing the hotel, the project’s contracting officer found the company met the terms of the lease because the president had resigned from a formal position with the company and the organization had restructured an internal operating agreement so he received no direct proceeds from the D.C. hotel business while in office.

“In other words, during his term in office, the president will not receive any distributions from the trust that would have been generated from the hotel,” said the contracting officer, Kevin M. Terry.

“Terry also praised the project for turning a partly empty government office building into a hotel that had already generated $5.1 million for the government by the time it opened in the fall.

“Thus the lease turned a building that had been costing taxpayers millions of dollars per year into a revenue-generating asset,” Terry wrote.

“The announcement by the General Services Administration allows Trump’s company, which he still owns, to continue to benefit from a contract ultimately overseen by his administration, a situation that ethical experts have called unprecedented and a conflict of interest that puts the president’s personal financial situation ahead of taxpayers.

“Trump signed a 60-year lease for the government-owned Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2013, then spent more than $200 million turning the project into a luxury hotel.

“Since the election, Democrats on Capitol Hill have constantly pressed the agency to address concerns raised by Trump’s profiting from the lease deal.

“Reps. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) and Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) sharply criticized the decision, saying the GSA’s decision rendered the lease provision “meaningless” and relied on news articles and corporate language to justify its ruling.

“This decision allows profits to be reinvested back into the hotel so Donald Trump can reap the financial benefits when he leaves the White House,” they wrote. “This is exactly what the lease provision was supposed to prevent.”

“Since Trump took office, GSA officials and Trump Organization representatives have been negotiating changes to the company’s corporate structure and landed on an agreement in which the president would still profit from the hotel but not receive those profits until he leaves office.”

The Old Post Office Building was not dilapidated. It housed several small federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for Humanities. Just two of the agencies Trump wants to eliminate.

By the logic of the contracting officer, Kevin Terry, every federal office building should be turned into condos, shopping malls, and hotels to generate revenues, instead of costing taxpayers millions by using them for government functions.

Trump continues to shatter tradition with every passing day.