This morning Trump is blasting the New York Times and their reporting suggesting that banks didn’t want to do business with Trump.
According to Fox News:
The article itself focused on allegations that transactions made by entities controlled by Trump and Jared Kushner through Deutsche Bank raised flags, but that the bank did not fully investigate them. It also said that other banks would not deal with Trump.
The Times article, which was published on Sunday, cited former Deutsche Bank employees who recalled that several transactions made by Trump-controlled entities triggered alerts about possible suspicious activity. The story also noted that real estate developers often engaged in cash transactions that resulted in such alerts, despite banks later finding no improper activity.
The Times reported that Deutsche Bank was the only institution that dealt with Trump at the time. The president said on Twitter that he didn’t need other banks and that Deutsche Bank “was very good and highly professional to deal with – and if for any reason I didn’t like them, I would have gone elsewhere.”
The former employees told the Times that Deutsche Bank would ignore reports of suspicious activity and were lax in their anti-money laundering enforcement. A bank spokesperson pushed back, telling the Times, “At no time was an investigator prevented from escalating activity identified as potentially suspicious.” One of the former employees claimed she was fired after speaking out about the bank’s operations. The spokesperson said this was “categorically false.”
Here’s the response from Trump this morning.
Note that Trump predicts the demise of the New York Times:
The Failing New York Times (it will pass away when I leave office in 6 years), and others of the Fake News Media, keep writing phony stories about how I didn’t use many banks because they didn’t want to do business with me. WRONG! It is because I didn’t need money. Very old
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2019
….fashioned, but true. When you don’t need or want money, you don’t need or want banks. Banks have always been available to me, they want to make money. Fake Media only says this to disparage, and always uses unnamed sources (because their sources don’t even exist)……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2019
The Mainstream Media has never been as corrupt and deranged as it is today. FAKE NEWS is actually the biggest story of all and is the true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! That’s why they refuse to cover the REAL Russia Hoax. But the American people are wise to what is going on…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2019
….Now the new big story is that Trump made a lot of money and buys everything for cash, he doesn’t need banks. But where did he get all of that cash? Could it be Russia? No, I built a great business and don’t need banks, but if I did they would be there…and DeutscheBank……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2019
…..was very good and highly professional to deal with – and if for any reason I didn’t like them, I would have gone elsewhere….there was always plenty of money around and banks to choose from. They would be very happy to take my money. Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2019
You can read more about this from Fox News here…