“I would, I would,” he said, before apparently acknowledging the legal limitations imposed by the embargo. In early 2016, Wolf Blitzer interviewed candidate Trump and asked if he would open a hotel in Cuba. Miguel Fluxà, chief executive of Spain’s Iberostar Hotels and Resorts, which operates 17 hotels in Cuba, also said that the Trump Organization was trying to negotiate opening its own hotels there. In fact, two business consultants reportedly introduced the Trump executives to possible partners in Cuba and even prepared sketches of what Trump Tower Havana might look like. “They had some meetings,” Donald Trump admitted to Jim DeFede, an investigative reporter for CBS Miami. “While we are not sure whether Cuba represents an opportunity for us, it is important for us to understand the dynamics of the markets that our competitors are exploring.”Įric’s dad was more direct when asked to comment on the Bloomberg story. “In the last 12 months, many major competitors have sought opportunities in Cuba,” he replied. According to Businessweek magazine, they claimed to be going to the island for golfing and bird-watching.īusinessweek asked Donald Trump’s son Eric, then an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, whether these trips had a business purpose. companies to do business on the island.īetween 20, several Trump Organization executives responsible for developing golf properties traveled to Cuba repeatedly. Joe Skipper/Reuters Golfing and bird-watching in Cubaīut just months before the Newsweek report, Trump had been actively seeking to take advantage of Obama’s opening to Cuba, which created a wide range of exceptions to the embargo, including allowing U.S. Trump went to Little Havana, in the city of Miami, to announce that he would tighten restrictions against Cuba. Soon after the article’s publication, Trump was in Florida making campaign promises to “reverse” President Barack Obama’s Cuba policy, which had relaxed restrictions on travel and re-established diplomatic ties. Because they generally oppose any dealings with the Castro regime, the Newsweek story was a political problem. Trump was courting conservative Cuban-Americans at the time. In his defense, Trump argued that although Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts had paid for the exploratory trip, it had done nothing wrong because it did not ultimately invest in Cuba. The story broke in the homestretch of the 2016 U.S. Kennedy imposed an economic embargo on Cuba in 1962, the Cuban market has been closed to most American companies, including the hospitality sector.īecause their business trip violated the embargo, Seven Arrows advised the Trump organization to disguise its payment to them as a charitable project, according to documents obtained by Newsweek. The goal, a former official with Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts told Newsweek, was to get a jump on the competition if President Bill Clinton opened up Cuba to U.S. There, they met with government officials and business leaders. traveled to Cuba, which was then led by Fidel Castro. Reportedly acting with Trump’s knowledge, representatives from Seven Arrows Investment and Development Corp. Privacy Policy.In September 2016, when Trump was the Republican presidential candidate, Newsweek magazine revealed that in 1998, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts hired a consulting firm to explore business opportunities on the island. Under which this service is provided to you. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018Ĭable News Network. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes.
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