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Trump to pocket US$5 million for Vietnam golf complex
Local developer Kinh Bac pays US president licence fee as part of US$1.5 billion luxury project
Sao Da Jr   18 Jun 2025

US President Donald Trump will be paid US$5 million by a Vietnamese company as a licence fee related to the development of a US$1.5 billion golf and urban project in Vietnam, according to a recent government report.

The president’s certified annual financial disclosure report dated June 13 by the US Office of Government Ethics ( USOGE ) shows that he is to receive the fee from Hung Yen Hospitality Services Joint Stock Company ( JSC ) via DT Marks Vietnam.

Line 94 of the USOGE report shows the income amount and says that DTTM Operations owns 79% of DT Marks Vietnam, the Trump family owns 20% and DT Marks Vietnam, 1%. However, this line also reads: “US bank account and intercompany receivable in the amount of US$4 million for licence fees” and “value not readily ascertainable”.

DTTM Operations is the entity responsible for managing the intellectual property rights, including trademarks, for Donald Trump.

In Vietnam, the licencee – Hung Yen Hospitality Services JSC – is part of Kinh Bac Group, a leading Vietnamese developer of industrial and urban properties. It is better known as Kinh Bac or KBC, as the private and shareholding corporation is listed as KBC on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s main bourse.

Kinh Bac’s Hung Yen Hospitality Services JSC held the groundbreaking ceremony for the US$1.5 billion luxury golf and urban project, whose investors include the Trump Organization, on May 21 in Hung Yen province near Hanoi. Donald Trump’s son Eric, a top executive at the Trump Organization, joined Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in the ceremony to highlight the project.

The high-end golf course and urban complex is being built on a site of more than 990 hectares. It will include two golf courses, one with 36 holes and the other with 18, and housing for 35,000 residents. The project’s construction is set to be completed in the second quarter of 2029.

However, in his meeting with the Vietnamese prime minister in Hanoi in March this year, Charles James Boyd-Bowman, CEO of IDG Capital Vietnam, which represents the Trump Organization in the country, said the project was expected to be partially used during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC ) Summit 2027.

Vietnam will chair the APEC Forum in 2027, with the summit set for March of that year.

The Vietnamese property developer and the Trump Organization, Kinh Bac reveals, kicked off the partnership to develop the complex before Trump won the presidency for a second time in November 2024.