Trump has bank accounts in China, Ireland and UK
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump maintains a bank account in Ireland as well as China and Britain, according to an analysis of his tax records.
However, the foreign accounts do not show up on Mr Trump’s public financial disclosures, where he must list personal assets, because they are held under corporate names, according to The New York Times. The president’s interest in Ireland is the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg, Co Clare and he has two courses in Scotland.
Mr Trump has also spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, The New York Times reported – operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company. The revelations come ahead of the final presidential debate tonight.
DONALD TRUMP reportedly retains a “secret” bank account in China, according to The New York Times’s latest investigation of his tax records, making a nonsense of his attempts to tie Joe Biden to the political interests of Beijing.
The president stormed out of an interview with Lesley Stahl of CBS’s 60 Minutes being filmed at the White House yesterday, posting a clip of the reporter on Twitter shortly afterwards attacking her for not wearing a face mask and threatening to release his own cut of the “FAKE and BIASED” discussion before the network can broadcast its version.
Mr Trump later attended a rally in Erie in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania at which he said there was “no way” he would have come to the area had the coronavirus pandemic not put his reelection hopes in jeopardy.
“We’re going to win. I think we’re going to win so big,” he reassured the MAGA crowd, again painting an apocalyptic vision of a Biden future before changing mood, griping that “nobody wants me” and cutting his speech unusually short due to the cold weather.
Earlier The New York Times claimed Mr Trump spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company.
China is one of only three foreign nations – the others being Ireland and Britain – where Mr Trump maintains a bank account, according to analysis by the newspaper of the president’s tax records.
The foreign accounts do not show up on Mr Trump’s public financial disclosures, where he must list personal assets, because they are held under corporate names.
The Chinese account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management LLC, which the tax records show paid $188,561 (€160,000) in taxes in China while pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015.
In response to questions from The New York Times, Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organisation, said the company had “opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local taxes” associated with efforts to do business there.
He said the company had opened the account after establishing an office in China “to explore the potential for hotel deals in Asia”.
“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialised and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” Mr Garten said.
“Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.”
China continues to be an
issue in the 2020 presidential campaign, from the president’s trade war to his barbs over the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.
His campaign has tried to portray former vice president Joe Biden as misreading the dangers posed by China’s growing power.
Mr Trump has also sought to attack his opponent with assertions about Hunter Biden’s business dealings there while his father was in office.
As for the former vice president, his public financial disclosures, along with the income tax returns he voluntarily released, show no income or business dealings of his own in China.
However, there is ample evidence of Mr Trump’s efforts to do business there.
As with Russia, where he explored hotel and tower projects in Moscow without success, Mr Trump has long sought a licensing deal in China. His efforts go at least as far back as 2006.
Tax records show that one of his China-related companies,
THC China Development LLC, claimed $84,000 (€71,000) in deductions that year for travel costs, legal fees and office expenses.
The New York Times said Mr Trump’s tax records show he has invested at least $192,000 (€154,000) in five small companies created to pursue projects in China.
Those companies claimed at least $97,400 (€82,000) in business expenses since 2010, including minor payments for taxes and accounting fees as recently as 2018, it reported.