‘I smell trouble’: Trump defends Deutsche Bank in bizarre series of tweets — and sets off alarm bells

President Donald Trump raised eyebrows with a series of tweets defending his banking history.

The president insisted he did not need to borrow money to pursue real estate projects, and also claimed he could easily have obtained loans from any bank -- rather than relying on foreign investors and the embattled Deutsche Bank.

"The Fake News Media loves the narrative that I didn’t use many banks because the banks didn’t like me," Trump tweeted. "No, I didn’t use many banks because I didn’t (don’t) need their money (old fashioned, isn’t it?). If I did, it would have been very easy for me to get."

"And remember, a bank that I did use years ago, the now badly written about and maligned Deutsche Bank, was then one of the largest and most prestigious banks in the world!" Trump added. "They wanted my business, and so did many others!"

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Deutsche Bank AG as part of its probe of alleged money laundering through Malaysia’s scandal-plagued 1MDB investment fund, and the bank has also made news this week after severing ties earlier this year with Jeffrey Epstein as federal authorities prepared sex trafficking charges against him.

Other Twitter users questioned the timing of Trump's rant about Deutsche Bank, which Congress has subpoenaed to examine evidence of their dealings with the president.