Trump’s own mortgages match his description of mortgage fraud, records reveal – ProPublica

For months, the Trump administration has accused its political enemies of mortgage fraud for claiming more than one primary residence.

President Donald Trump called one of his enemies “deceitful and potentially criminal.” He called another “CROOKED” on Truth Social and pushed the attorney general to take action.

But years earlier, Trump did exactly what he accuses his enemies of, records show.

In 1993, Trump signed a mortgage for a “Bermuda-style” house in Palm Beach, Florida, pledging that it would become his primary residence. Just seven weeks later, he obtained another mortgage for a neighboring seven-bedroom, marble-floored property, certifying that it would also be his primary residence.

In fact, Trump, then a New Yorker, never appears to have lived in either house, much less used them as his primary residence. Instead, the two homes, which sit next to his historic Mar-a-Lago estate, were used as investment properties and rented out, according to contemporary news reports and an interview with his longtime real estate agent — exactly the kind of scenario his administration has cited as evidence of fraud.

At the time of the purchases, Trump’s local real estate agent told the Miami Herald that the businessman had “hired an expensive New York design firm” to “refurbish them and rent them out every year.” In an interview, Shirley Wyner, the late real estate agent’s wife and business partner who herself later served as the leasing agent for both properties, told ProPublica, “They were rentals from the beginning. » Wyner, who has worked with the Trump family for years, added: “President Trump has never lived there. »

Mortgage law experts who reviewed the filings for ProPublica were struck by the irony of Trump’s double mortgages. They said claiming primary residences on different mortgages simultaneously, as Trump did, is often legal and rarely prosecuted. But both Trump loans, they said, exceed the low bar that the Trump administration itself set for mortgage fraud.

“Given Trump’s position in situations like this, he will either have to fire himself or go to the Justice Department,” said Kathleen Engel, a law professor at Suffolk University and an expert on mortgage financing. “Trump felt that this type of misrepresentation is enough to prevent someone from serving the country.”

Mortgages for a person’s primary residence tend to have more favorable terms, such as lower interest rates, than mortgages for a second home or rental investment property. Legal experts said having more than one primary residence mortgage can sometimes be legitimate, such as when a person needs to move for a new job, and other times can be caused by a clerical error. Determining bad intent on the part of the borrower is key to proving fraud, and experts said lenders have significant discretion over the loans they offer their customers. (In this case, Trump used the same lender to purchase both Florida homes.)

But in recent months, the Trump administration has claimed that simply having two primary residence mortgages is evidence of criminality.

Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency who led the charge, said earlier this year: “If someone claims two primary residences, that’s not appropriate, and we will refer it to a criminal investigation.” »

Trump hung up on a ProPublica reporter after he was asked if his Florida mortgages were similar to those of others he had accused of fraud.

In response to questions, a White House spokesperson told ProPublica: “Both of President Trump’s mortgages that you reference are from the same lender. There was no fraud. It is illogical to believe that the same lender would agree to defraud each other.”

The spokesperson added, “This is yet another desperate attempt by the left-wing media to denigrate President Trump with false allegations,” and said, “President Trump has never, and will never, break the law.”

The White House did not respond to questions about other documents related to the transactions, such as loan applications, that could shed light on what Trump told the lender or whether the lender made exceptions for him.

At the time Trump purchased the two Florida properties, he was dealing with the ruins of the high-profile bankruptcies of his casinos and hotels in the early 1990s. (He recounted seeing a panhandler on Fifth Avenue around that time and telling his companion, “You know, right now that man is worth $900 million more than me.”) In December 1993, he married model Marla Maples at a sumptuous ceremony at the Plaza Hotel. And in Florida, he lobbied local officials to let him turn Mar-a-Lago, then a residence, into a private club.

Trump purchased the two homes, both located on Woodbridge Road directly north of Mar-a-Lago, and obtained back-to-back mortgages in December 1993 and January 1994. The lender for both mortgages, one for $525,000 and the other for $1,200,000, was Merrill Lynch.

Each of the mortgage documents Trump signed contains the standard occupancy requirement: He must make the property his primary residence within 60 days and live there for at least a year, unless the lender decides otherwise or there are extenuating circumstances.

But ProPublica found no evidence that Trump ever lived at either property. Legal documents and federal election records from the time list his address as Trump Tower in Manhattan. (Trump would officially change his permanent residence to Florida a few decades later, in 2019.) A Vanity Fair profile published in March 1994 described Trump spending time in Manhattan and at Mar-a-Lago itself.

Trump’s real estate agent, who told local press that the original plan was to rent the two satellite homes, was quoted as saying: “Mr. Trump, in fact, is in a position to approve who his neighbors are.” »

Over the next few years, advertisements appeared in local newspapers advertising each of the houses for rent. At one point in 1997, the larger of the two homes, a 7-bedroom, 7-bathroom Mediterranean Revival mansion, was listed at $3,000 per day.

Although Trump did violate the law with his two primary residence mortgages in Florida, the loans have since been repaid and the mid-1990s are well outside the statute of limitations for mortgage fraud.

A spokesperson for Bank of America, which now owns Merrill Lynch, did not respond to questions about Trump’s mortgage loans.

“It is very unlikely that we have the original documents for a 32-year-old transaction, but generally in mortgages to private clients, the terms of the transactions are based on the overall relationship,” the spokesperson said in a statement, “and the mortgages are not guaranteed or sold to a government-sponsored entity.”

Trump’s two Palm Beach mortgages bear similarities to loans taken out by political rivals who his administration has accused of fraud.

In October, federal prosecutors indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James over her mortgage. James has been one of Trump’s top targets since she filed a fraud lawsuit against the president and his company in 2022.

A central claim in the case brought against her by the Trump Justice Department is that she bought a house in Virginia, pledging to her lender that it would serve as her second home, then used it as an investment property and rented it out. “This false statement allowed James to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties,” according to the indictment.

Trump’s Florida mortgage deals appear to have made a more significant misrepresentation, as he claimed these homes would be his primary residence, not his second home as James did, before renting them out.

James denied the allegations against her and the case was dismissed last month on procedural grounds, although the Justice Department attempted to re-indict her.

The circumstances surrounding Trump’s mortgages are also similar to the case his administration brought against Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook.

Trump said he was firing Cook earlier this year over his mortgages, as he sought to bend the traditionally independent agency to his will and force it to lower interest rates. Cook, who has denied any wrongdoing, filed a lawsuit to block the firing and continues to serve on the Fed board as the legal battle continues.

In a letter to Cook, Trump specifically noted that she signed two primary residence mortgages within weeks of each other — just as records show in Florida.

“You signed a document stating that a property in Michigan would be your primary residence for the next year. Two weeks later, you signed another document for a property in Georgia stating that it would be your primary residence for the next year,” Trump wrote. “It is inconceivable that you were not aware of your first commitment when making the second.”

He called the loans potentially criminal and wrote, “at a minimum, the conduct at issue demonstrates the kind of gross negligence in financial dealings that calls into question your competence and reliability.” »

The Trump administration has made similar fraud allegations against other political foes, including Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell, both of whom have denied any wrongdoing.

In September, ProPublica reported that three Trump Cabinet members had designated several homes as their primary residences in mortgage deals. Bloomberg also reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did something similar. (The Cabinet members have all denied any wrongdoing.)

Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has denied that his investigations are politically motivated. “If it’s a Republican committing mortgage fraud, we’re going to look into it,” he said. “If it’s a Democrat, we’ll look at it.”

So far, Pulte has not made any criminal complaints against Republicans. He did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about Trump’s Florida mortgages.