The Trump Organization

The Trump Organization is an American privately-owned conglomerate owned by Donald Trump. It serves as the holding company for all of Trump's business ventures and investments. Around 250 of these entities use the Trump name. Donald Trump joined the organization in 1968, began leading it in 1971, renamed it around 1973, and handed off its leadership to his children in 2017 when he won the 2016 United States presidential election. In 2022, the organization was convicted of tax fraud felonies. In a civil lawsuit in 2023, a New York judge ruled that the organization had fraudulently overvalued its properties when applying for bank loans.

The Trump Organization, through its various constituent companies and partnerships, has or has had interests in real estate development, investing, brokerage, sales and marketing, and property management. Trump Organization entities own, operate, invest in, and develop residential real estate, hotels, resorts, residential towers, and golf courses in various countries. They also operate or have operated in construction, hospitality, casinos, entertainment, book and magazine publishing, broadcast media, model management, retail, financial services, food and beverages, business education, online travel, commercial and private aviation, and beauty pageants. Trump Organization entities also own the New York television production company that produced the reality television franchise The Apprentice. Retail operations include or have included fashion apparel, jewelry and accessories, books, home furnishings, lighting products, bath textiles and accessories, bedding, home fragrance products, small leather goods, vodka, wine, barware, steaks, chocolate bars, and bottled spring water.

Since the financial statements of the Trump Organization's holdings and Donald Trump's personal tax returns are both private, its true value is not publicly known, though a wide range of estimates have been made. Trump has publicly released little definitive financial documentation to confirm his valuation claims. On several occasions, Trump has been accused of deliberately inflating the valuation of Trump Organization properties through aggressive lobbying of the media (in particular the authors of the annual Forbes 400 list) to bolster his perceived net worth.

By 2019, the Trump Organization was being scrutinized by New York investigators for possible financial fraud. In July 2021, New York prosecutors charged the organization with 10 counts in an alleged 15-year tax avoidance scheme. In November, The Washington Post reported that between 2011 and 2015 the organization presented several properties as being worth far more to potential lenders than to tax officials. In August 2022, the organization's chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty to committing more than a dozen felonies, including criminal tax fraud and grand larceny. In September 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a civil lawsuit against the organization. A separate criminal case by the Manhattan district attorney was brought to trial in October; on December 6, the organization was convicted on 17 criminal charges.

In September 2023, the judge presiding over the civil suit ruled that Trump, his adult sons and the organization repeatedly committed fraud and ordered their New York business certificates canceled and their business entities sent into receivership for dissolution in what has been described by observers as a 'corporate death penalty'.