Vietnam Approves $1.5 Billion Trump Organization Golf Resort Amid Tariff Talks

In May 2025 Vietnam's government approved a $1.5 billion Trump Organization golf resort and residential development near Hanoi, with Eric Trump attending a groundbreaking ceremony on May 21. The approval came as Vietnam was actively negotiating with the Trump administration to avoid a proposed 46% tariff on its exports to the United States.

The arrangement places a foreign government's commercial approval of a Trump-family business squarely alongside that same government's effort to secure favorable US trade terms from the president who controls tariff policy. In a subsequent trade deal, the tariff rate on Vietnamese goods was set at 20%, down from the initially threatened 46%.

Supporters say the Trump Organization operates independently of White House trade decisions and that Vietnam's investment reflects ordinary economic development. Critics counter that the president has not placed his business in a blind trust, and that foreign governments negotiating trade terms while approving projects for his family company creates an appearance of leverage, regardless of whether any explicit exchange occurred.