Deutsche Bank, which has a business relationship with President Donald Trump that’s spanned years, refused to give the candidate a loan during his 2016 presidential campaign in 2016, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Trump was burning cash that was both funding his campaign and expanding his business group’s collection of properties, the Times reported. Citing two unnamed sources, the Trump Organization specifically sought a loan against a Miami property to fund work on a Scotland golf course called Turnberry.
However, bank officials who spoke to the Times under the condition of anonymity said Trump’s divisive campaign made loaning him money too risky. The bank feared if he defaulted, the bank would have to choose between not collecting on the debt, or attempting to seize the assets of the President of the United States.
The German banking powerhouse is under renewed scrutiny for its ties to Trump during the years he was a New York City real estate magnate, a relationship Democrats intend to probe now that they’ve recaptured the majority in the House of Representatives.
A 2018 financial disclosure form showed liabilities for Trump of at least $130 million to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, a unit of the German bank. They are for properties including D.C.’s Trump International Hotel, located in a former post office in the nation’s capital.
A Trump Organization spokeswoman denied that the group had sought a loan for Turnberry, but did not specifically speak to whether the group had sought a loan, the Times said. Deutsche Bank declined to comment to the Times, and the Trump campaign did not immediately return CNBC’s request for comment.
–Reuters contributed to this article.
