The No-New-Foreign-Deals Pledge and the Scotland Expansion
- Promised
- At Trump's January 2017 press conference, counsel for the Trump Organization said the arrangement would isolate him from the business, bar new foreign deals and donate foreign-government hotel profits to the Treasury.Open cited record · 2 sources
- The record
- Local authorities approved a major housing and resort expansion at the Trump Organization's Aberdeen property during Trump's presidency.Open cited record · 2 sourcesThe company said the expansion complied with its pledge because the underlying project already existed.Open cited record · 1 source
- Who gained
- Trump International Golf Links Scotland
- Who paid
- Aberdeenshire community and planning authority
- Audit finding
- unresolved
The expansion continued a preexisting foreign property and therefore fell within the company's stated interpretation of its pledge; whether that interpretation matched the public meaning of no new foreign deals remained disputed.
Causal strength: documented mechanism