President Donald Trump is reportedly tens of millions of dollars in debt to the Chinese government-controlled Bank of China, which invested heavily in a refinancing plan for the 43-story New York City building 1290 Avenue of the Americas, which Trump owns a 30 percent stake in. Repayment for this loan is due in 2022, right smack dab in the middle of what could be Trump’s second term in office if he’s re-elected. That means that while Trump uses continued U.S. economic tension with China as an excuse to criticize his presumptive general election challenger Joe Biden for supposedly acting too soft on the country, Trump himself is “owned” by China, like he’s claimed could happen to a Biden presidency.
The loan in question was issued in 2012, and the Bank of China contributed $211 million in support of the refinancing deal, which totals almost $1 billion in value. And the Chinese connections to the president’s business, which he’s refused to detach himself financially from, extend on from there — POLITICO even reports that “Chinese state-owned companies are constructing two luxury Trump developments in United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.” And Trump wants us to believe that he’s some tough guy who will take on the abuses of the Chinese government? He owes them millions of dollars! It’s not even like the refinancing deal for Trump’s NYC property is small potatoes — it was, in fact, the first Chinese bank involvement in any similar deal in the U.S.
Robert Maguire, who works as research director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in D.C., told POLITICO:
‘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. 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.’
In other words, Trump’s obsession with the Bidens’ foreign business dealings, which even led to his impeachment thanks to his effort to bribe Ukraine into investigating the family, seems to be a feat of projection.
