Donald Trump signed mortgage documents in the 1990s claiming two separate Florida properties would each serve as his principal residence – the same thing his administration is calling “mortgage fraud” 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 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.
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 – having two primary dwelling mortgages – “deceitful and potentially criminal” in relation to mortgage fraud charges against the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. The Trump administration is bringing several similar cases against the New York attorney general, Letitia James, the senator Adam Schiff and the congressman Eric Swalwell.
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 – just as Trump did.
But Trump wrote to Cook in a letter that he posted on TruthSocial announcing he had fired her that such conduct demonstrated incompetence, untrustworthiness and “gross negligence in financial transactions”.
“It is inconceivable that you were unaware of your first commitment when making the second,” he wrote, adding he had determined there was “sufficient cause” to fire her.
In 1993, the president’s real estate agent told the Miami Herald 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. “They were rentals from the beginning,” she said.
Kathleen Engel, a Suffolk University law professor specializing in mortgage finance, told the outlet that the president’s own loans exceed the threshold his administration has established for fraudulent conduct.
The White House defended the transactions, noting both mortgages came from the same lender, Merrill Lynch. A spokesperson called ProPublica’s story a politically motivated attack and said Trump has never broken the law.
Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency leading the administration’s mortgage fraud investigations, said earlier this year that claiming two primary residences would be referred “for criminal investigation”. His agency has pursued several high-profile Democrats on similar grounds.
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.
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.
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.
Both mortgages have since been paid off, the outlet said, and any potential violations fall well outside the statute of limitations for mortgage fraud.
ProPublica said Trump hung up when a reporter asked whether his Florida mortgages resembled those he has accused others of fraud over.
