THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION and VIETNAM
Fifty years after the Vietnam War, which cost millions of Vietnamese lives and tens of thousands of US lives, the Trump Organization is planning to build a $1.5 billion golf complex in Vietnam (pop.100 million): a 36-hole golf course, villas, theme parks, and an urban commercial district. Permits are being fast-tracked and the resident agricultural population has been told to get ready to move and advised that they would get half of what their property would have sold for before the golf course project was announced.
Why is Vietnam agreeing to this? Vietnam wants to avoid steep US tariffs and curry favor with the Trump administration. Its leaders see little difference between the Trump Organization and the Trump administration. They see further investments in the future and are eager to placate the world’s behemoth. They are not the only ones: the Trump Organization, run by his sons, has developed or has plans to develop 20 such properties worldwide.
Source: The New York Times, 5/28/25