Trump Organization Admits President Still Controls His Business In New Filing

Forbes

Donald Trump can lie to the American public, but the Trump Organization has a harder time deceiving authorities in Britain, where private companies face greater disclosure requirements.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2025/05/06/trump-organization-admits-president-still-controls-his-business-in-new-filing/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Trump Organization admits President still controls his business in new

00:06filing. Donald Trump, who has long tried to suggest he has little to do with the operations

00:12of his business empire, retains power over the trust that holds his assets, according to a

00:18filing his business submitted to British regulators last month. The document, titled

00:23Notice of Individual Person with Significant Control, identifies Donald John Trump, born in

00:30June 1946, as someone with influence over Golf Recreation Scotland Limited, the entity through

00:36which the president holds Trump Turnberry, a golf resort that hosted four British Opens

00:41before Trump purchased it in 2014. A more detailed section of the filing, labeled

00:47Nature of Control, specifies that

00:50The person has the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control

00:56over the activities of a trust. The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust holds Golf Recreation Scotland

01:03Limited and, via a web of additional entities, virtually every other asset in Donald Trump's

01:09empire. By stating that Trump has control over the trust, his business appears to admit that

01:15Trump maintains a grip on his entire empire. The Nature of Control section goes on to describe

01:21the role of the trust's designated trustee or trustees during Trump's first term, his

01:27son Don Jr., and executive Allen Weisselberg, with Eric Trump serving as chairman of the advisory

01:32board of the trust. The document says, quote,

01:36The trustees of that trust, in their capacity as such, have the right to exercise, or actually

01:42exercise, significant influence or control over the company. Or, in plain English, Trump

01:48delegated authority while retaining ultimate power.

01:53Back in early 2017, after Trump promised he would not talk about his business with his

01:58affairs, first son Eric Trump told Forbes that the president would receive financial updates,

02:03quote, probably quarterly. Around that time, ProPublica obtained a document suggesting that

02:09Trump could demand money from the trust at any point. The president spent much of his first

02:14term visiting his properties, decamping to Mar-a-Lago so often that he nicknamed it the, quote,

02:19Winter White House. His ambassador to the United Kingdom reportedly told people Trump asked

02:25him to look into whether the British government could help direct the British Open to Turnberry.

02:30The president also tried to steer the G7 meeting of global leaders to his golf resort in Miami.

02:36A document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2024 said that Trump

02:41remains the sole beneficiary of his trust.

02:45Even in moments that the president has feigned separation from his business, he sometimes hints

02:50at the truth. For example, in 2017, Trump hosted a press conference

02:55to highlight his moves to hand things off to his heirs. At the conclusion of the event,

02:59however, he couldn't help but assert control, saying, quote, I hope at the end of eight years,

03:04I'll come back and say, oh, you did a good job. Otherwise, if they do a bad job, I'll say,

03:09you're fired. He also named an ethics lawyer during his first term, Bobby Birchfield, then replaced him

03:17with William Burke. In a social media post last month, Trump suggested his business should ditch

03:22Burke. Eric Trump confirmed within hours that the Trump organization was parting ways with the

03:28attorney. Nonetheless, efforts to portray the president as separate from his multi-billion

03:34dollar empire persist. Contacted last month about a story that measured the impact tariffs had on

03:40Trump's business, a spokesperson for the White House responded, quote, the president's assets are in a

03:45trust managed by his children while he was working overtime to lead the country to economic prosperity.

03:51White House representatives did not respond to inquiries about the new filing. The spokesperson

03:57for the Trump organization did weigh in, however. The spokesperson said, quote, this was a simple

04:03administrative update. The structure of the business has not changed. So, in other words, despite efforts

04:10to make it seem otherwise, the president has apparently been in control all along. For full coverage,

04:18check out Dan Alexander's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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