Trump’s son claimed Russia paid for golf courses
DONALD TRUMP’S son Eric once said that his father’s golf courses were funded by Russia, Arnold Palmer’s biographer has claimed.
James Dodson, an acclaimed golf writer, described how he had been invited to play with Mr Trump, his son Eric, and Greg Norman at a club the future president owned in North Carolina three years ago,
Mr Dodson told the Boston radio station WBUR: “This is the journalist in me, I said ‘What are you using to pay for these courses?’ And he (Donald Trump) just sort of tossed off that he had access to $100 million.
“So when I got in the cart with Eric, as we were setting off I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks, because of the recession, the Great Recession, have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.’”
Mr Dodson claimed Eric Trump then told him: “Well, we don’t rely on Amer- ican banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programmes. We just go there all the time.”president Trump has categorically denied having any financial ties to Russia. In January he said: “I have nothing to do with Russia – no deals, no loans, no nothing.”
Mr Dodson co-wrote Arnold Palmer’s 2000 memoir A Golfer’s Life.
His claim came amid criticism of the sister of Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Nicole Kushner Meyer has been in China encouraging investors to take part in a “golden visa” programme which provides a path toward obtaining US green cards. She was promoting One Journal Square, a Kushner Companies development comprising two upmarket apartment towers in New Jersey, at events for Chinese financiers in Beijing and Shanghai.
The project is seeking to raise $150 million (£115 million), or 15.4 per cent of the funding, from foreign investors through the EB-5 visa programme.
The EB-5 programme allows foreigners to obtain US immigration visas for themselves and their families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects. It has come under fire from US politicians, although it was recently extended until September 30.
Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer in President George W Bush’s White House, criticised the events in China as “incredibly stupid and highly inappropriate”.
Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump and is senior adviser to the president, has a White House portfolio that includes relations with China. He stepped down as chief executive of Kushner Companies in January to take up his White House role.