Trump Organization to build $1.5 billion golf course, hotel project in Vietnam

The Trump Organization is planning to develop a $1.5 billion golf course and hotel project in northern Vietnam’s Hung Yen province. The project, set in partnership with local real estate developer Kinhbac City (KBC), marks a significant expansion of the Trump family business into the Southeast Asian country and aligns with Vietnamese Americans’ growing political support for Donald Trump and Republicans at home.

Key details: The project, unveiled following a memorandum of understanding signed during Vietnamese President To Lam’s recent visit to the U.S., includes two 54-hole golf courses, hotels, resorts and a residential complex. The Trump Organization’s golf course and resort ventures have been crucial to its financial success, with the latest expansion signaling a strategic focus on international markets. “We are excited to enter this dynamic market. Vietnam has potential in the luxury hotel and entertainment industry,” said Eric Trump, executive vice president of The Trump Organization and second son of the former president. At present, Vietnam has a community of about 100,000 golfers across 70 courses. Construction timelines have not been disclosed, but discussions with local authorities have already begun.
Go deeper: The conglomerate’s choice of Vietnam as its latest market signals Trump’s affinity for the Vietnamese American community, who lean more Republican than other Asian American groups. A Pew Research Center survey released in May 2023 shows that 51% of Vietnamese American voters tilt toward the GOP, while 42% lean Democratic. This political orientation has been attributed to their unique immigration history, particularly the experience of fleeing communism after the Vietnam War. “It’s just our experience of socialism, and our experience of Communism still remains in our psyche, so that we would prefer smaller government,” former U.S. Rep. Anh Joseph Cao (R-Louisina) told the Washington Post last year. In August, Trump made headlines after visiting a Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia, saying, “the Vietnamese community loves me, and I love them.”

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