Documents filed with British regulators show President Donald Trump maintains control over his business empire.
The U.S. president has long insisted he has little to do with Trump Organization operations while in the White House, but the document, titled “notice of individual person with significant control,” identifies him as an individual with influence over Golf Recreation Scotland Limited, through which he controls the Trump Turnberry golf course, reported Forbes.
"A more detailed section of the filing, labeled 'nature of control,' specifies that 'the person has the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control over the activities of a trust,'" the publication reported. "The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust holds Golf Recreation Scotland Limited and, via a web of additional entities, virtually every other asset in Donald Trump’s empire. By stating that Trump has control over the trust, his business appears to admit that Trump maintains a grip on his entire empire."
The "nature of control" section describes how, during his first term in office, Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg, with Eric Trump serving as an adviser, served as the trust's designated trustees or trustee, Forbes reported, but the arrangement makes clear that Trump delegated authority while retaining ultimate power over the company.
Trump promised from the start of his first term that he wouldn't talk businesses with his sons, but Eric Trump told Trump in early 2017 that his father would receive financial updates “probably quarterly," while documents showed he could demand money from the trust at any point, and he frequently visited his properties with Secret Service agents in tow.
Another document, filed in December 2024 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, also stated that Trump remains the sole beneficiary of his trust, and as recently as last month, the president urged his business should fire ethics attorney William Burck over his work for Harvard University – and Eric Trump confirmed a short time later they were parting ways.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization admitted the structure of the business has not changed, which Forbes took to mean Trump has been in charge all along, but the White House said last month that he had little control over the company's operations.
“The president’s assets are in a trust managed by his children while he is working overtime to lead the country to economic prosperity," a spokesperson said last month, but White House representatives did not respond to questions about the new filing.
