Is Vietnam doing the Trump family with a luxury golf course?
The ground was demolished on May 21 for a $ 1.5 billion luxury golf resort in North Vietnam, owned by US President Donald Trump’s family business.Vietnamese Prime Minister Fam Minh Chinh and Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of Trump Organization presided over the ceremony.A few days later, Trump visited Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam’s Economic Powerhouse to finalize an agreement for the development of a luxury hotel in a rapidly expanded city’s Upskail district.Reports suggest that the Vietnamese government approached the Trump organization and potentially violated domestic rules.On April 2, these deals face 46% tariffs threatened by the Trump administration.Although these punitive “mutual tariffs” have been postponed by July, Vietnam remains under pressure, especially considering its enough $ 123 billion (€ 109 billion) trade surplus with the United States.According to official data, Vietnam is the highest among the most trade-dependent countries globally, which exports the US alone to about 30% GDP.“Hanoi understands that for the Trump administration, what is public is private, and the best way of curry is to deal with the Trump family,” told DW, “Zachari Abuja, a professor at Washington’s National War College, Washington.Relations with Vietnam were positive in the early years of Trump’s first term. Former President Gujen Zuan Fuk was one of the first world leaders to meet Trump at the White House in 2017, and Hanoi was later selected to host a high-profile but failed summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un in North Korea in February 2019.However, Trump’s stance moved to a large extent later that year when he accused Vietnam of being “worst derogatory” in trade relations with America, allegedly investigated in unfair practices. These measures only reversed after taking over as President Joe Biden in early 2021.
Vietnam fast-track trump’s luxury golf resort
However, officially a private enterprise, the Vietnamese government provided a lot of facilities for the Golf Resort Schemes of the Trump Organization.In mid -March, Prime Minister Fam Minh Chiha met Charles James Boyd Boman, head of the Trump organization projects in Vietnam, and “promised to have a thorough review to rapidly track the project.”According to Vietnamese media reports, he kept Vietnam in the position of Vietnam as a commercial basis and called for expanding his investment footprint in the country.Vietnam has actually taken to his promise, gaining record-breaking speed for regulator approval, Abuja said. Typically, projects of this scale take years; It reached the groundbreaking function within three months of an initial filing.In March, Hanoi also allowed for SpaceX, Elon Musk, Trump’s efficiency under Caesar ownership, to start its starlink satellite internet service based on a test.Earlier this week, the new York Times The newspaper revealed a letter from the Vietnamese officials, clearly stated that the project needed support from senior members of the Vietnamese government as it was “receiving special attention from Trump administration and President Donald Trump.”As Time The report, the Vietnamese government, by giving concessions to the Trump organization, “has ignored its own laws” which “are more generous than the local people.”In addition, the entire project runs counter for the Housing Master Plan of Hung Yen Province, where it is located, and potentially of the state environment and safety regulations.According to the above letter by the Vietnamese government officials, the groundbreaking event was also “brought forward to avoid remembering the window to redeem the support of Donald Trump administration.”
Vietnam’s strategic hedging
The preliminary agreement for the golf course was signed last September, two months before Trump won the US presidential election.“Although the leading nuances for the deal are not known, a laudable principle is that a real estate project of this scale could not proceed without the support of the Vietnamese government,” Hoang Thi, Haung Haang Hoang Hoang, a senior partner of the Joseph Ishaq Institute in Singapore, wrote in the article for the institute’s full -fledged analysis website last month.He said that the support of the state is “a way for Vietnam may be a way to remove his interests with Trump before the US presidential election result is known.”In addition, the location of the golf resort is important. Hung Yen is just outside Hanoi and the General Secretary of the Communist Party is the home province of Lam.The powerful general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Guyen Phoing, died in early 2024. In his place, for Lam, the first public safety minister and promoter of Trance, quickly consolidated power.Lam became the state president and then party chief, inspired to separate the criteria of Vietnamese politics and to surprise some commentators whether they had dictatorship plans. He later abandoned the presidency.Since last year, Lam has appointed various ministries and appointed officers or individual friends from Hung Yen Province at its place.
‘There is no guarantee that Vietnam will get what he wants’
“Hanoi has rolled out the red carpet for trump-conferred businesses in recent months,” said Khak Giang Guayen, a visiting Fellow at ISEAS-Yosoff Ishaq Institute, DW.He said, “This is a calculated, transaction trick, hopefully the treatment for Trump’s business interests could buy some goodwill amidst the ongoing business talks in Washington,” he said.The White House has said that Trump’s trade discussions are completely different from his family’s business behavior.Vietnam has actively sought to reduce tariff hazards, which already vows to reduce all duties on US imports and increase the purchase of American goods.A senior partner of the Vietnam Studies program of ISEAS -Yusof ISHAK Institute, Le Hong HIEP said, “There is no guarantee that Vietnam will get it only by doing it with Tram.“If Vietnam fails to follow more American goods and to prevent Chinese transmission to prevent fraud, then the approval of the project of Trump organization is not helping,” he said.
