page_title: The Trump Organization
section_title: Controversies
hierarchical_section_title: The Trump Organization / Controversies
caption_attribution_description: English: Trump AVM opening ceremony
context_page_description: The Trump Organization is a group of about 500 business entities of which Donald Trump is the sole or principal owner. About 250 of these entities use the Trump name. The organization was founded in 1923 by Donald Trump's grandmother, Elizabeth Christ Trump, and father, Fred Trump, as E. Trump & Son. Donald Trump began leading it in 1971, renamed it around 1973, and handed off its leadership to his children in 2017.
  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.
context_section_description: In 1973, the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Civil Rights Division filed a civil rights suit against the Trump Organization charging them for violating the 1968 Fair Housing Act by refusing to rent to black people. The National Urban League had sent black and white testers to apply for apartments in Trump-owned complexes; the white testers got the apartments, whereas the black testers did not. According to court records, four superintendents or rental agents reported that applications sent to the central office for acceptance or rejection were coded by race. A 1979 Village Voice article quoted a rental agent who said Fred Trump had instructed him not to rent to black people and to encourage existing black tenants to leave. In 1975, a consent decree described by the head of DOJ's housing division as "one of the most far-reaching ever negotiated" required Trump to advertise vacancies in minority papers and list vacancies with the Urban League. The Justice Department subsequently stated that continuing "racially discriminatory conduct by Trump agents has occurred with such frequency that it has created a substantial impediment to the full enjoyment of equal opportunity."
  Also, it is alleged that the Trump Organization has a history of not paying for services rendered. Several hundred contractors or workers for the organization have filed lawsuits or liens saying they were not paid for their work, and others say they had to settle for cents on the dollar.
  In 1989, New York State officials ordered the Grand Hyatt New York, a hotel owned at the time by the Trump Organization and the Hyatt Corporation, to pay New York City $2.9 million in rent that had been withheld by the hotel in 1986 due to "unusual" accounting changes approved by Donald Trump. An investigation by New York City auditors noted that the hotel was missing basic financial records and found the hotel was using procedures that violated generally accepted accounting principles.
  From 2000 on, the Trump Organization held 50% of TD Trump Deutschland AG, a corporate venture with a German company, planning to build a skyscraper named "Trump Tower Europe" in Frankfurt, Berlin or Stuttgart, but allegedly never paid the full amount of their €2 million share. At least three lawsuits followed and the company was disestablished in 2005.
  In December 2015, Trump said in a radio interview that he had a "conflict of interest" in dealing with Turkey and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan because of his Trump Towers Istanbul, saying "I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul and it's a tremendously successful job ... It's called Trump Towers—two towers instead of one ... I've gotten to know Turkey very well."
  As of August 2017, Tom Scharfeld owns the trademark of "iTrump" mobile app which plays the trumpet. As "the word trump has other meanings", the Court did not rule in favour of the Trump Organization.
  On March 15, 2018, the New York Times reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as part of his inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, had previously issued a subpoena for documents from the Trump Organization. Alan S. Futerfas, a lawyer representing the Trump Organization, said: "Since July 2017, we have advised the public that the Trump Organization is fully cooperative with all investigations, including the special counsel, and is responding to their requests."
  In August 2018, the Manhattan District Attorney was reported to be considering criminal charges against the organization and two of its senior executives regarding the payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels.
  In October 2018, The New York Times published an exposé arguing that the Trump family evaded over $500 million in gift taxes and estate taxes on the transfer of Fred Trump's wealth to his children. The alleged schemes involved siphoning money from Fred's companies to his children throughout their lives, and understating the value of transferred properties. The Trump family denied the allegations. New York tax authorities opened an 
caption: Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan attended the opening of the Trump Towers Istanbul AVM in 2012.
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