Obama won’t stay at Chinese-owned Waldorf hotel in N.Y.

Is President Obama worried that his hotel’s walls have ears?

Mr. Obama apparently won’t be staying at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan, his preferred hotel, when he visits New York City Friday night. White House press secretary Josh Earnest wouldn’t say where the president will sleep in New York, or why he’s not staying at the Waldorf.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. sold the midtown hotel in 2014 to Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group Ltd. for $1.95 billion.

China has been blamed for widespread hacking of the U.S. government’s files, stealing data of nearly 22 million current and former federal workers.

The president will be attending a Democratic fundraiser in New York and spending time with his daughters in the city before returning to Washington on Saturday.

The Waldorf also traditionally has been the home of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and for other U.S. diplomats when they attend the U.N. annual general assembly in September.

The State Department will shift its personnel this September to the nearby New York Palace Hotel for the U.N. meeting.