President Donald Trump owes millions to a Chinese state-owned bank and the debt is up in 2022, Politico reports.
Trump owns a 30% stake in a $1 billion New York City skyscraper located at 1290 Avenue of the Americas.
The building’s primary owner, Vornado Realty Trust, refinanced the building for $950 million in 2012.
The deal included a $211 million loan from the Bank of China, the first loan of its kind in the US.
Vornado’s federal disclosures show that it and Trump still owe the bank money and the loan is up in what would be Trump’s second term if he wins re-election.
"The next time Trump breathes one word about Biden and China, remember this," said former Biden aide Colin Kahl. "Trump is up to his eyeballs in debt to the Bank of China...and the loan is due soon."
Trump claims China will “own” US if Biden wins:
The report undercuts Trump’s repeated allegation that China “will own the United States” if Joe Biden wins the election.
The Bank of China is the same bank that the Trump campaign has linked to Hunter Biden’s dealings in China.
"Why did the Chinese government's bank want to do business with Hunter Biden while his dad was Vice President," his campaign tweeted earlier this month, along with a campaign ad pushing the issue.
Biden denied that he did business on his trip with his father to China in 2013. Hunter Biden later bought a 10% stake in an investment group partially financed by Chinese investors for more than $400,000, which he has since sold.
"While Trump is talking about the former vice president's son financial dealings, in Trump's case, it is the president himself who has a company he still owns and profits from that has financial relationships with the countries that he is supposed to be negotiating with on behalf of the American people," Robert Maguire, the research director of the watchdog group CREW, told Politico. "There are definitely legitimate questions that are raised by Hunter Biden's actions. They are not even in the same ballpark as the conflict of interest questions raised by President Trump's continued relationship with his own company."
Conflicts don’t end there:
Trump and his daughter Ivanka have received numerous trademarks from the Chinese government since taking office.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, also courted Chinese investors for a real estate deal.
Chinese state-owned companies are also building Trump buildings in the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.
"We actually explored all these foreign enterprises and how once he became president he'd be seen differently by foreign leaders who would have leverage over this president because he had investments in their countries and/or financial dealings with business enterprises and financial institutions and investors in their countries," Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly told Politico. "He is highly conflicted with respect to China."
