Deutsche Bank ‘gave Trump preferential treatment while he was in office’

Germany's Deutsche Bank delayed a loan repayment that was due from former US President Donald Trump's company while he was still in office, according to recently released documents. 

Trump's company lost more than $70 million operating his Washington hotel, forcing him at one point to get a reprieve from Deutsche.

In addition to the payment delay, the Trump Organisation also had to inject $27 million from other parts of its business to help the hotel, according to documents released by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. 

The committee said financial statements it obtained show the losses came despite an estimated $3.7 million in payments from foreign governments, that ethics experts say Trump should have refused because it posed conflicts of interest with his role as president.

The documents from the committee, the first public disclosure of audited financial statements from the hotel, show steep losses despite a brisk business while he was in office from lobbyists and businesses and Republican groups.

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The loan delay by Deutsche Bank to the president was an “undisclosed preferential treatment” that should have been reported by the president because the bank has substantial business in the US, the committee said in a letter. 

The letter was sent to General Services Administration, the federal agency overseeing the hotel. The hotel is leased by the federal government to the Trump Organisation.

“The documents ... raise new and troubling questions about former President Trump’s lease with GSA and the agency’s ability to manage the former president’s conflicts of interest during his term in office when he was effectively on both sides of the contract, as landlord and tenant,” the committee, overseen by Democrat Carolyn Maloney of New York, wrote in a news release.

Trump's company has been trying to sell the 263-room hotel since the fall of 2019 but has struggled to find buyers.

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