By Julia Manchester

September 18, 2017 - Executives from the coal industry are planning to gather at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., in October for a private conference, according to a report from The Intercept.

The National Mining Association's event will reportedly include strategic policy discussions, as well as speeches and meetings with members of the administration, including Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. 

Zinke is considered to be a close ally of the coal industry, while the president has made repeated promises on the campaign trail and in his presidency to revamp the coal industry and bring jobs back to miners. 

Earlier this year, Zinke ended the Obama administration’s moratorium on coal-mining leases on federal land and upended an Obama administration review of royalty rates for federal coal leasing.

The venue for the lobbying event is likely to raise eyebrows, due to the president's alleged business ties to the hotel, which he has frequented as president.

“The National Mining Association or any other lobbying group has likely concluded that spending money at the Trump International Hotel in D.C. is a solid way of currying favor with the administration — and that spending money anywhere else runs the risk of offending our very sensitive president,” Brendan Fischer, an election law expert with the Campaign Legal Center, told the Intercept.

USA Today reported earlier this month that at least 50 business executives whose companies have federal contracts and 21 lobbyists and trade group officials hold memberships at Trump's clubs in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia.