{"id":8160,"date":"2025-12-09T18:24:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T18:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/12\/09\/trump-had-two-mortgages-he-claimed-were-primary-dwellings-records-show-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T18:24:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T18:24:59","slug":"trump-had-two-mortgages-he-claimed-were-primary-dwellings-records-show-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/12\/09\/trump-had-two-mortgages-he-claimed-were-primary-dwellings-records-show-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump had two mortgages he claimed were primary dwellings, records show – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald Trump<\/a> signed mortgage documents in the 1990s claiming two separate Florida properties would each serve as his principal residence \u2013 the same thing his administration is calling \u201cmortgage fraud\u201d when done by political rivals, records show.<\/p>\n

ProPublica<\/a> unearthed documents demonstrating that within seven weeks of each other in late 1993 and early 1994, the president obtained loans for neighboring Palm Beach homes, pledging each would be his primary dwelling. Instead of living in them, though, he rented both out as investment properties.<\/p>\n

There is no suggestion that the activity is or was illegal, and proving intent is key in fraud cases. Yet Trump has called the same behavior \u2013 having two primary dwelling mortgages \u2013 \u201cdeceitful and potentially criminal\u201d in relation to mortgage fraud charges against the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. The Trump administration<\/a> is bringing several similar cases against the New York attorney general, Letitia James, the senator Adam Schiff and the congressman Eric Swalwell.<\/p>\n

James was charged in October over a Virginia property she designated as a second home before renting out. Cook was fired after signing two primary residence mortgages weeks apart \u2013 just as Trump did.<\/p>\n

But Trump wrote to Cook in a letter that he posted<\/a> on TruthSocial announcing he had fired her that such conduct demonstrated incompetence, untrustworthiness and \u201cgross negligence in financial transactions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is inconceivable that you were unaware of your first commitment when making the second,\u201d he wrote, adding he had determined there was \u201csufficient cause\u201d to fire her.<\/p>\n

In 1993, the president\u2019s real estate agent told the Miami Herald<\/a> the properties would be leased annually. Shirley Wyner, who later served as rental agent for both homes, confirmed to ProPublica this week that Trump never lived in them. \u201cThey were rentals from the beginning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Engel, a Suffolk University law professor specializing in mortgage finance, told the outlet that the president\u2019s own loans exceed the threshold his administration has established for fraudulent conduct.<\/p>\n

The White House defended the transactions, noting both mortgages came from the same lender, Merrill Lynch. A spokesperson called ProPublica\u2019s story a politically motivated attack and said Trump has never broken the law.<\/p>\n

Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency leading the administration\u2019s mortgage fraud investigations, said earlier this year<\/a> that claiming two primary residences would be referred \u201cfor criminal investigation\u201d. His agency has pursued several high-profile Democrats on similar grounds.<\/p>\n

Pulte has insisted his investigations are not politically motivated, claiming equal scrutiny for Republicans and Democrats. However, he has yet to make any publicly known criminal referrals against Republican officials, despite similar mortgage patterns emerging among three Trump cabinet members.<\/p>\n

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The Trump loans in question in 1993 and 1994 financed two Woodbridge Road properties adjacent to Mar-a-Lago, for $525,000 and $1.2m. Each mortgage contained standard occupancy requirements mandating Trump make the property his principal residence within 60 days and live there at least one year.<\/p>\n

Records place Trump at his Manhattan residence, Trump Tower, throughout the period. He would not officially change his permanent residence to Florida until 2019. Newspaper advertisements from the mid-1990s seen by ProPublica confirm both homes were marketed as rentals, with the larger seven-bedroom property listed at $3,000 a day in 1997.<\/p>\n

Both mortgages have since been paid off, the outlet said, and any potential violations fall well outside the statute of limitations for mortgage fraud.<\/p>\n

ProPublica said Trump hung up when a reporter asked whether his Florida mortgages resembled those he has accused others of fraud over.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump signed mortgage documents in the 1990s claiming two separate Florida properties would each serve as his principal residence \u2013 the same thing his administration is calling \u201cmortgage fraud\u201d when done by political rivals, records show. ProPublica unearthed documents demonstrating that within seven weeks of each other in late 1993 and early 1994, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}