January 12, 2021

Another Bank Says It Will Cut Ties With Trump

“Professional Bank has decided not to engage in any further business with the Trump Organization.”

President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, in Washington. The President is traveling to Texas. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

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The Florida-based Professional Bank is cutting ties with Donald Trump and his Trump Organization, Mother Jones has learned. The move comes after other financial institutions announced in recent days that they would no longer do business with the embattled president. 

In May 2018, Trump borrowed $11.2 million from Professional Bank, a small bank based in Coral Gables, Florida, that specializes in small-business and construction lending. The money came via a 30-year mortgage and was used to purchase a home from Trump’s sister, Maryanne Barry Trump, adjacent to the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort. 

At the time it was an odd move—Trump had borrowed for decades from German financial giant Deutsche Bank and, more recently, from Wall Street lender Ladder Capital. Transferring his business to Professional, which was founded in 2008 and has only a handful of offices in South Florida, seemed like a step down. But Deutsche Bank reportedly told Trump in 2016 that it would no longer lend to him while he was running for elected office, and Deutsche Bank was later drawn into investigations related to the president’s finances. 

According to Trump’s most recent financial disclosure, in addition to the Professional Bank mortgage, he also had a money market account at the Florida bank worth between $5 million and $25 million.

Professional Bank announced it was severing ties with the president in a brief statement provided to Mother Jones Tuesday. “Professional Bank has decided not to engage in any further business with the Trump Organization and its affiliates, and will be winding down the relationship effective immediately,” the statement said.

On Monday, Deutsche Bank—where Trump owes more than $300 million—said it would no longer do business with Trump in the wake of last week’s mob attack at the Capitol. Signature Bank, where Trump has two personal accounts worth about $5 million, said it would close those accounts and released a statement urging Trump to resign.   

The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment. 

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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