Trump Owes Deutsche Bank $340 Million As Company Cuts Ties With President

Deutsche Bank has reportedly become the latest company to sever ties with President Donald Trump, ending a tricky two-decade relationship in which it faced scrutiny over its role as a lender to the Trump Organization.

The bank declined to comment when contacted by Newsweek on Tuesday about reports it would no longer do business with Trump or his company, as the fallout continues from the riots in the U.S. Capitol last week that the president is accused of stoking. Newsweek has also contacted the Trump Organization for comment.

The decision, which sources familiar with the bank's thinking revealed to The New York Times and CNN, follows news that Signature Bank, the New York lender that served Trump's family, would also close two personal accounts in which Trump held about $5.3 million.

A number of other businesses, including Comcast, Shopify and Hallmark, have also distanced themselves from Trump.

The checkered relationship between the German bank and Trump goes back to 1998 when it loaned the future president around $425 million to finance renovations of a tower at 40 Wall Street and the construction of a skyscraper next to the United Nations.

In 2003, Deutsche Bank helped Trump's casino company sell hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds but Trump's company defaulted in 2004, leaving the bank's clients with losses. Trump also sued the bank's real estate division in 2008 after defaulting on a $40 million repayment that funded the construction of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

But the bank stood by him and loaned him more money to pay off existing debt. The total lending by Deutsche Bank to Trump and his companies since the 1990s is more than $2.5 billion, although the president has paid most of this back.

The German bank now has around $340 million in loans outstanding to the Trump Organization, according to a Reuters report in November citing bank officials and filings made to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

There are currently three Deutsche Bank loans against Trump properties, which are due in 2023 and 2024.

They are interest-only loans against Trump's golf course in Miami, and hotels in Washington and Chicago on which so far the Trump Organization.

The bank's executives believe Trump can repay the loans, given his personal guarantees and the time left before they come due. His not being in office would make it easier for then demand repayment, foreclose, or refinance.

However, Deutsche Bank officials have been concerned about the constant negative coverage of its links to Trump and how it had been dragged into congressional and other investigations into Trump's finances.

The bank had considered restructuring loans after he was elected but decided not to do new business with him during his presidency, Bloomberg reported.

Bank executives were worried that congressional investigations stalled amid a court battle over access to Trump's financial records would be kickstarted again if Trump lost the election.

The bank has been subpoenaed about its relationship with the Trump Organization. The Manhattan District Attorney's office and New York Attorney General are investigating whether the Trump Organization misled or defrauded the lender by inflating the value of some of its assets.

Bank executives had been discussing in the months prior to the election how to cut the relationship with Trump, Reuters reported. At the end of December, two private bankers who worked closely with Trump resigned.

The violence in Washington, D.C. last week, which Trump is accused of fomenting, appeared to be the final straw. Christiana Riley, Deutsche Bank's top executive in the Americas condemned the violence last week at the Capitol, saying in a post on LinkedIn that "the scenes that we witnessed are a shame on the whole nation."

The graphic below by Statista shows how Americans feel the removal of Trump from office before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.