Farmers in Vietnam are being forced off their land for the equivalent of just one just a few thousand dollars each to make room for a $1.5 billion Trump golf course.
As Vietnam was trying to finalize a trade deal to prevent President Donald Trump from imposing crippling tariffs on Vietnamese products, the country agreed to fast-track approvals to build a Trump-branded golf course on a 2,450-acre site in Hung Yen province, near the capital of Hanoi, Reuters reported.
Originally, the developers—a Vietnamese real estate company called Kinhbah City—had planned to pay thousands of villagers more than $500 million to leave the land, which many have relied on for decades for their livelihoods, according to Reuters.
Now, the farmers are being paid $3,200—less than the average annual salary in Vietnam—and being given a few months’ worth of rice provisions, sources told the news outlet. After a lifetime of growing bananas, peaches, longan, and other crops, they worry they will not be able to find new jobs.
There is no room for negotiation, as Vietnam’s Communist government manages the farmland. Farmers are assigned small plots for long-term use, and can be taken away again when the government decides, according to Reuters.
In May, President Trump’s son Eric attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the project, which is being financed and developed by a Vietnamese real estate company called Kinhbac City.
The developer paid the Trump Organization $5 million for brand licensing rights, and Trump’s family business will run the club once it’s completed. The farmer compensation is being handled by the developer, according to Reuters.
The president claims the Hanoi club and other international Trump real estate deals don’t represent a conflict of interest with presidential duties because Trump’s assets in the business are held in a trust managed by his children.
The income, however, still accrues to the president, meaning both he and his children are getting rich from the deals.
One farmer told Reuters he would have accepted a low compensation rate for leaving if the land were to be used to build roads or other public infrastructure.
“But this is a business project,” he said. “I don’t know how that would contribute to people’s life.”
Representatives for Vietnam’s agriculture ministry, the Trump Organization, and Kinhbac City did not reply to questions from Reuters about the compensation rates. The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the Trump Organization for comment.
In June, Eric Trump told the Financial Times, “If there’s one family that hasn’t profited off politics, it’s the Trump family.”
It was a bold claim considering the massive real estate and cryptocurrency deals the family has inked in the months since Trump won re-election.
In December, Eric Trump revealed that a new Trump Tower was being built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In May, plans were announced for a Trump-branded luxury golf course in Qatar that will be part of a $5.5 billion development project, and a $1 billion Trump hotel and residence was announced in Dubai.
Before Trump took office, a New York judge had ordered The Trump Organization to pay $350 million in penalties for fraud after the company was found liable for vastly overstating the value of its real estate holdings to obtain more favorable loan terms.
Now, Eric Trump says the Trump Organization is worth $8 billion to $12 billion, according to the Financial Times. The family’s crypto holdings have also come to rival its real estate portfolio, the paper reported.
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