NY Times On Seth Waugh Not Wanting To Give Donald Trump Deutsche Bank Loans

David Enrich files a lengthy New York Times look at President Donald Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank and two of his key efforts at funding golf projects: Turnberry and Doral.

Former CEO and current PGA of America president Seth Waugh comes up as a key player who consistently opposed lending the Trump organization for projects after having been burned during his time at Merrill Lynch.

In 2000, Waugh joined ­Deutsche Bank. Perma-­tanned and with long, floppy hair, Waugh developed a reputation among some ­Deutsche Bank colleagues for being a bit of a lightweight. They derided him for spending more time on the golf course than he did in the office. (Today Waugh is the chief executive of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America.) But he enjoyed the confidence of one of ­Deutsche Bank’s highest-­ranking executives, Josef Ackermann, who helped recruit him from Merrill Lynch. In 2001, Waugh learned that ­Deutsche Bank was planning to lend Trump about $500 million to use as he wished — basically an unrestricted cash infusion to stabilize his flagging finances. Having witnessed up close the carnage that Trump could inflict on imprudent financial institutions, Waugh was in no hurry to repeat the experience.

The bank ultimately provided a loan for Trump’s purchase of Doral at a bargain price, and how Waugh was no longer in charge of the American operation when the future president returned for a 2016 loan request to pay for work at Turnberry.

While the story is a fairly devastating look at the losses left behind by Trump in several instances, the Enrich account of Waugh, the current PGA President, seems tough early on but ultimately paints the picture of a shrewd banker knowing the tendencies of the customer in question.