Nearly three years ago, Deutsche Bank refused a request from the Trump Organization to increase its loan for a Miami-area golf course, Trump International Doral, because the bank was concerned about its growing relationship with Donald Trump and his company.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that the German bank internally questioned whether it was adequately informed about how the Trump Organization would use the loan money.
Deutsche Bank did not comment on the loan request, which the New York Times first reported.
A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization declined to confirm whether the company requested a loan from Deutsche Bank in the spring of 2016.
A global loan committee within Deutsche Bank rejected the financing request from the Trump Organization, and so did a U.S. committee that screens loan applications for risks to the reputation of the bank and related issues.
One of the concerns among members of the Deutsche Bank committees was whether the requested loan money could be used to finance something other than Trump National Doral, including Trump’s presidential campaign.
Democrats who head the House Intelligence Committee and the House Financial Services Committee say they plan investigations into Deutsche Bank’s relationship with Trump.
Since 1998, the bank has been the lead lender or a participant in loans totaling at least $2.5 billion to companies linked to Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When Trump was a candidate for president, he filed a financial disclosure in 2016 showing that Deutsche Bank made four of the 16 loans to his companies that he reported.
Two mortgage loans from Deutsche Bank in 2012 accounted for a significant share of the Trump Organization’s total debt to the bank. One of the loans was valued at more than $50 million, the other between $5 million and $25 million, and both were for Trump National Doral.
When Deutsche Bank refused a request from the Trump Organization to increase financing for Trump National Doral in March 2016, Trump was funding his presidential primary campaign mainly with his own money.
Trump had loaned approximately $36 million to his campaign by the end of March 2016, and he later would forgive personal loans to the campaign totaling $50 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. [Wall Street Journal] – Mike Seemuth